On November 28th, 2012, a special screening of Ini Avan (Him, Here After), Asoka Handagama’s latest movie, was organized at Club Lincoln, in Paris, by Heliotrope Films.
Premiered at Cannes 2012 as one of the films under the Association of Independent Cinema ACID (l’Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion), Ini Avan has been listed in some of the most prestigious film festivals in the world during the past months including Toronto, Edinburg, Tokyo, Hanoi.Its cast includes Darshan Dharmaraj, Niranjani Shanmugaraja, Subashini Balasubramaniun, Raja Ganeshan, Malcolm Machado and King Rathnam. Cinematography is by Channa Deshapriya, music by Kapila Poogala Arachchi and art direction by Sunil Wijerathne.
Having watched the movie, Ambassador Jayatilleka observed that:
“The fact that Asoka Handagama, a young Sinhalese director and script writer, working with a cast of superb young Tamil actors and excellent musical director, was able to slip into the skin of his characters and into postwar Tamil society, clearly proves that South-North or Sinhala-Tamil reconciliation is indeed possible, precisely because he has been able to rise beyond ethnic identities and affiliations to the level of human empathy; of placing the human factor, the human being with his/her tragic stories and hopes, at the centre. Ini Avan is not only a fine piece of cinema, which has one’s attention riveted from opening to close while avoiding all movie clichés, but also an example of Humanist Realism in the arts. It is the youth who will propel reconciliation, through the arts and other forms of expression, with or without the Establishment. Anyone who is or claims to be even remotely committed to a sustainable peace in Sri Lanka, simply must see—and support the widest screening of—this movie Ini Avan, especially with Sinhala subtitling.”
Asoka Handagama
Focusing on the role of the female characters in the film, Sanja Jayatilleka described Ini Avan as:
“An exceptionally sensitive and moving portrayal of the despair of a community struggling to rebuild lives after a long and brutal war, and the indomitable spirit of those, especially the women, who are determined to overcome and transcend it.”
“Asoka Handagama is one of Sri Lanka’s best known and most controversial filmmakers. This is my Moon (2000) and Flying with one Wing (2002) earned him international recognition through several awards. Ini Avan is his seventh feature film. It will be released in French theaters in February 2013. Ini Avan will also be screened at the annual European Film Festival this December, in Sri Lanka.” says Embassy of Sri Lanka, Paris.
Present on this occasion were: Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Sanja Jayatilleka, Michel Lummaux (former Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka), Marc Tessier (former President of France Televisions), General Alain Lamballe, Prof. Eric Meyer, Lakshan Abenayake (recognized actor and filmmaker in France) and Sanjeewa Pushpakumara (filmmaker).
Wuliangguobinjiu / November 30, 2012
Dayan Jaya.. says: Quote”clearly proves that South-North or Sinhala-Tamil reconciliation is indeed possible, precisely because he has been able to rise beyond ethnic identities and affiliations to the level of human empathy; of placing the human factor, the human being with his/her tragic stories and hopes, at the centre.” Unquote.
The road to nirvana has dawned just do it ! HOoooooooo.
Movie: Another world of fantasy in a nation where 90% of the folk have an I.Q. below 70 due to racism of the south.
Now that a large proportion of the northerners are in the west Dayan can only keep on dreaming for the northerners to believe in any one lie of yours- your slogan has always meant bedanda baha denne naha mokakwath tahmusela parademalu!Truth is Truth no matter what you say I am neither Sinhalese or Tamil but I have seen it all- 3 days on the streets of colombo black july 83.
What exactly the SL southerner Sinhalese need is the “hard earnt wealth” of the west and the Tamils to do the jig- development over dead bodies you must be dreaming Dayan. Keep on dreaming and chasing ambulances.This bull of yours will carry on ( keep your position and the wages perks a school teacher does not deserve) for a couple of generations to come till a very big tsunami strikes you all.
Honesty is the best policy but the man who follows it is not an honest man!
During the Sri Lankan Tsunami the magnanimous western kids broke their piggy banks to raise billions; a record in the charity world that would never be broken very soon.
The western world is not stupid (like folk of your elk) to assume that the corrupt tyrants of Sri Lanka who set up Hambantota account were the brain child of western kids.
When the Tsunami next arrives which you most probably are praying for beware no funds would arrive because the kids have grown up wiser to the tyranny and corruption of that which is Sri Lanka and its inhabitants.
/
Wuliangguobinjiu / November 30, 2012
Dayan:
Let me offer you a challenge: Remove the military from Jaffna and ask your wife and kids to take a walk down the street tonight. See what happens to them.
Hint: If you don’t want to be “attacked” in the north never–NEVER–bend over for any reason.
Here’s the bottom line in many instances: The minority Tamil is the new and most commonly referenced social SCAPEGOAT.
Your descendants will be known as Chinese button-eye toilet tissue. LOL!
/
Wuliangguobinjiu / November 30, 2012
Dayan you know R.Com for 30 years then you must know this well.
Why not, someone try an honest movie so that it never happens again. One can only hope.
Stone’s throw from my home was CMS Ladies College Flower Road then next to it was the Russian Embassy and abutting it was a lane with a Tamil Girls School (not necessarily northerners). It was morning and I saw little girls with torn white uniforms running for their lives shocked I walked to the top of the lane and was stunned beyond belief to see a mob of over 200 young men rape the little flowers on the street. I remembered the booming voice of Patton “No bastard won a war by dying for his country but by killing the other bastard” so I walk away a hero towards Havelock Road to see the burning which Basil Fernando son of the soil on this forum has put in beautiful poetry.
The poem is reproduced here with courtesies to the author:
Yet Another Incident in July 1983
Burying the dead
being an art well developed in our times
(our psycho-analysts have helped us much
to keep balanced minds–whatever
that may mean–) there is no reason really
for this matter to remain so vivid
as if some rare occurrence. I assure you
I am not sentimental, never having
had a ‘break down’ as they say.
I am as shy of my emotions
as you are. And I attend to my daily
tasks in a very matter of fact way.
Being prudent too, when a government says “Forget”
I act accordingly. My ability to forget
has never been doubted, never
having had any adverse comments.
On that score either. Yet I remember the way they stopped that car,
the mob. There were four
in that car, a girl, a boy
(between four and five it seemed) and their
parents–I guessed–the man and the woman.
It was in the same way they stopped other cars.
I did not notice any marked
Difference. A few questions
in gay mood, not to make a mistake
I suppose, then they proceeded to
action, by then routine.
Pouring petrol and all that stuff.
Then someone noticed something odd
as it were, opened the two left side
doors, took away the two children, crying and
resisting as they were moved away from their parents.
Children’s emotions have sometimes
to be ignored for their own good, the guy must have
thought. Someone practical
was quick, lighting a match
efficiently. An instant
fire followed, adding one more
to many around. Around
the fire they chattered
of some new adventure. A few
scattered. What the two inside
felt or thought was no matter.
Peace loving people were hurrying
towards homes as in a procession….
Then suddenly the man inside
breaking open the door, was
out, his shirt already on
fire and hair too. Then bending,
took his two children. Not even
looking around as if executing a calculated
decision, he resolutely
re-entered the car.
Once inside, he closed the door
himself . . . I heard the noise
distinctly.
Still the ruined car
is there, by the road-side
with other such things. Maybe
the Municipality will remove it
one of these days to the Capital’s
garbage pit. The cleanliness of the Capital
receives Authority’s top priority.
/
Ramani F / December 3, 2012
Dayan goes for a movie organised by someone else and takes credit for it..great work
/
Dr Dayan Jayatilleka / December 3, 2012
The opening sentence of the Embassy’s media release, also republished on this website, reads as follows: “On November 28th, 2012, a special screening of Ini Avan (Him, Here After), Asoka Handagama’s latest movie, was organized at Club Lincoln, in Paris, by Heliotrope Films.”
Therefore, the issue of ‘Dayan taking credit’ for something organised by someone else, can only arise in the mind of someone who either has to visit an optician or go to night school and learn to accurately comprehend the English language :))
/
Wuliangguobinjiu / December 3, 2012
Dayan:
Nothing exists as wholes and parts in their natural context.
/
Wuliangguobinjiu / December 3, 2012
Ramani F: Well said
“Borrowed feathers don’t shine on a school teacher who thinks he is the bard” WoooHoooo!
/