The Forsaken Land (2005)

Weary residents (Soma, Lata, Piyasiri) of a war-ravaged country drift through life.

Director:

Vimukthi Jayasundara

Writer:

Vimukthi Jayasundara

Stars:

Kaushalaya Fernando, Nilupili Jayawardena, Hemasiri Liyanage

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kaushalaya Fernando	...	Soma
Nilupili Jayawardena	...	Lata
Hemasiri Liyanage	...	Piyasiri
Saumya Liyanage	...	Palitha
Pumudika Sapurni Peiris	...	Batti
Mahendra Perera

Storyline

Anura (Mahendra Perera) is a loyal soldier tainted by the tedium of a service he has forgotten how to define. His only company at the remote outpost is an alcoholic soldier named Piyasiri (Hemasiri Liyanage), whom he sees in passing as they trade shifts. Anura finds that even the prankish behavior of the infrequently passing soldiers isn't enough to offset the numbing stillness of his eternal wait anymore. Even at home, the inertia of the emotionless landscape persists, and between disconnected sexual encounters with his disinterested wife, Lata (Nilupili Jayawardena), detached conversations with his single sister, Soma (Kaushalya Fernando), and the heart-breaking dejection of their young charge, Batti (Pumidika Sapurni Peiris), it appears as if, in this war-torn wasteland, hope is nothing more than forgotten emotion and routine is the only nourishment for a collection of sad, starved souls.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Sri Lanka France

Language:

Sinhalese

Release Date:

25 January 2006 (France)

Also Known As:

The Forsaken Land

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arte France Cinéma,Digimage,Film Council Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Even though it won the Camera d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, the film was banned in its home country (Sri Lanka) by the UPFA Government of Mahinda Rajapakse in tandem with the Sri Lankan military. The filmmaker, Vimukthi Jayasundara, received death threats and relocated to France.

User Reviews

A depiction of our lives.

people live in misery but they seem to have failed to realize it, or they may have realized it but the fact that they haven't been able to do anything about it, may have rendered them utterly indifferent to their tragedies (like somebody already has pointed out) ..they are detached from the fellow human beings and they are absolutely lonely, and nobody seem to understand anybody and also nobody seem to expect any understanding from anybody else...the movie, masterfully crafted and acted, depicts a world where everybody is living among each other yet unable to connect to each other except for very quick senseless pleasures..but the movie also make a sense of humanity still apparent in those characters. Isn't it the tragedy of entire human society, not only in Sri Lanka ..that we are detached from each other..that we over-look our own miseries let alone of others..

the desert like desolate landscape, the sound of the dry wind and the lack of life on the land, add up to the atmosphere of the lives of these people, and the absence of a score for most of it also works fine with the mood. only complain I have is that the nudity in this felt mostly unnecessary. and the plot, well if there was one, felt all scattered. I don't think the director was trying to convey some specific message but his idea was to depict a society we live in today on screen as to his own mindset at which I believe he's succeeded.

I'm quite aware of the stir this caused for it's portrayal of SL army but how anybody see this as a movie about war is totally beyond me. by the time the movie came out, we, Sri lankans, couldn't think of anything without it having nothing to do with the war, it was a force that influenced our lives and the social elements, for me, the presence of soldiers in this movie, is merely a metaphor for what sort of a role the war had played in our lives.

and it's really nice to see this sorta artistic movies coming out of sri lanka...this is the only time in years that I deviated from my usual movie track of European or Hollywood cinema to have a look at what my own nation has to offer..and surely i was not disappointed. I urge every sri lankan to see this movie for what it is and keep in mind that its not a statement about war, but an artistic expression of an individual about our lives.