1957
The Bridge On The River
Kwai
1984
Indiana Jones And The
Temple Of Doom
FILMS
SRI
2012
Midnights Children
SHOT IN
L A NK A
Directed by
Chandran Rutnam
Oscar Award winner Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross
Property of Elephant Stables. Please refrain your self from taking this out of the hotel premises without the consent of the management.
INDEX
RED BORDERS
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Introduction
1934
A Song Of Ceylon
1951
Outcast Of The Islands
1952
The Planter’s Wife
1954
Elephant Walk
1954
The Beachcomber
1954
The Purple Plain
1957
The Bridge On The River Kwai
1978
The Mountain Of The
Cannibal God
1981
Tarzan The Ape Man
1984
Indiana Jones And The
Temple Of Doom
1989
The Iron Triangle
1997
The Second Jungle Book
1999
Sooryavansham
2005
Water
2012
Midnights Children
2012
A Common Man
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
Films Shot On
Location In Sri Lanka
’”Sri Lanka is a splendidly diverse lm location. As Arthur C
Clarke wrote in The View from Serendip (1977): “The island
of Ceylon is a small universe; it contains as many
variations of culture, scenery, and climate as some
countries a dozen times its size.”
What do Elizabeth Taylor, Alec
Guinness, Ursula Andress, Bo Derek
and Harrison Ford have in common?
The answer, apart from the
obvious - that they were all glamorous
movie icons at one time or another
- is that they all starred in lms that
were shot in Sri Lanka.
Academy Award-winning director
Sir Carol Reed, who directed one of
the best lms to have been made in
Sri Lanka, The Outcast of the Islands
(1952), remarked: “The whole of Sri
Lanka is a lm set”.
Arthur C Clarke alluded to two of the
attributes that have made Sri Lanka
a particularly appealing destination for movie makers - its tremendous diversity and relatively small
size. From palm-fringed beaches
to mist-shrouded mountains and
colossal ancient monuments, the
island’s varied landscapes represent
a cinematographer’s dream. Add to
this a rich architectural legacy - Portuguese, Dutch and British period
constructions co-exist with some
of Asia’s nest postcolonial designs
- and the possibilities for set designers are endless. It is no surprise that
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
TITLE
5
6
The Song Of Ceylon (1934 Documentary)
The Planter’s Wife (1952)
The Song Of Ceylon
(1934 Documentary)
The Song of Ceylon is a 1934
British documentary lm directed by Basil Wright and
produced by John Grierson
for the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board. Made by the
GPO Film Unit and sponsored by both the Empire
Tea Marketing Board and
the Ceylon Tea Board, Song
of Ceylon is one of the most
critically acclaimed products of the documentary
lm movement. It was hailed
at the time of its release by
author and lm critic Graham
Greene as a cinematic mas-
terpiece, and received the
award for best lm at the International Film Festival in
Brussels, 1935.
The lm is a sophisticated
documentary, notable for
its experimentation with
sound. It features crucial
input from Alberto Cavalcanti, who helped with the
soundtrack, as well as composer Walter Leigh, who experimented in the studio to
create a number of sound
eects.
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
Outcast Of The Islands (1951)
In 1951–1952, Briton Carol Reed directed
the UK-produced Outcast of the Islands,
made in black-and-white, starring Trevor
Howard, Ralph Richardson, Peter Morley
and Wendy Hiller. The lm is based on Joseph Conrad’s pessimistic second novel,
An Outcast of the Islands (1896). Trevor
Howard plays a degenerate British expat, Peter Willems, on the run in Indonesia from a scandal in Makassar, who nds
refuge in a village of cannibals but spoils
things by chasing after the chief’s daughter. None of the characters
Outcast Of The Islands (1951)
is particularly likeable; even Willems loses
audience empathy by betraying a close
friend, Captain Lingard (a recurring character in Conrad’s stories), played by Ralph
Richardson. Yet as an online reviewer remarks, “to ignore Trevor Howard’s marvellous portrayal of Conrad’s pathetically inadequate Willems would be to pass over
one of British cinema’s nest performances”.
TITLE
The Planter’s Wife (1952)
In 1952, compatriot Ken Annakin (whose later lms included
the wacky Those Magnicent
Men in their Flying Machines
and the bloody Battle of the
Bulge) directed The Planter’s
Wife (aka Outpost in Malaya
in the US). This UK-produced
lm, made in black-and-white,
is based on the novel of the
same name by the popular war
author, Sidney Charles George,
and stars Claudette Colbert,
Jack Hawkins and Anthony
Steel. A supporting actor, primarily known as a classical In-
dian dancer, was Ram Gopal.
The Planter’s Wife concerns
a rubber planter and his wife
who struggle to defend their
home against communist insurgents during the Malayan
Emergency. One online reviewer comments: “While Anthony
Steel and Hawkins are both excellent, Colbert is the weak link.
Prone to hysterical outbursts,
for someone in her supposed
position, she lacks the toughness one would expect.”
Elephant Walk (1954)
During 1953, Paramount Pictures’ Elephant Walk
was directed by William Dieterle, a German who
emigrated to the US in 1930 and soon gained
a Hollywood reputation. Based on Robert
Standish’s novel of the same name published
in 1948, Elephant Walk is the one lm from this
period set in Ceylon. It’s a tale of a bride newly
arrived from England who has to contend with
her tea-planter husband’s father complex, the
fact that she is the only white woman in the district, and the rampages of a herd of elephants.
considered for the role. Dieterle, who apparently always wore a large hat and white gloves
on location, weathered this crisis, and Leigh can
be seen in certain long shots. Peter Finch played
Taylor’s husband, while Dana Andrews provided
some extra-marital romantic interest. One online reviewer enthuses: “William Dieterle does a
masterful job of bringing a somewhat dark, and
almost eerie, undertone to this romance and
the setting is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen
with the black-and-white themed mansion and
the gorgeous island scenery.”
Initially, Vivien Leigh played the bride, but she
was suering from psychological problems that
began to aect the lming, so Elizabeth Taylor replaced her, although Katherine Hepburn, Olivia
de Havilland and Jean Simmons were
Elephant Walk (1954)
7
8
The Beachcomber (1954)
The Purple Plain (1954)
The Beachcomber (1954)
Mainly shot in Ceylon in 1954, the UK-produced The Beachcomber, directed by Muriel
Box and starring Donald Sinden, Glynis Johns,
Donald Pleasance and Michael Horden, was
the second screen adaptation of Somerset
Maugham’s story “The Vessel of Wrath”. The
story concerns the small British community
in the Welcome Islands (although situated in
the south Atlantic they were transposed to
the Indian Ocean), the governor, Martha and
Owen, brother and sister missionaries, and
the self-styled ‘the Honourable Ted’, a harddrinking, womanizing social outcast. When
cholera threatens the island’s indigenous
inhabitants, the unlikely pair of Martha and
Ted work together to stop its spread.
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
Outcast Of The Islands (1951)
The Purple Plain (1954)
9
The Purple Plain is based on the novel of the
same name published in 1947 by the prolic
and successful author H.E. Bates: the script
was written by the master spy novelist, Eric
Ambler, in consultation with Bates.
The lm is a credible World War Two drama
set in Burma in which, unusually, the Japanese make no appearance. Gregory Peck
plays a Canadian pilot, Bill Forrester, serving
in the RAF, who ies a Mosquito, mostly made
of wood, one of the war’s most remarkable
planes. Forrester, stationed at a jungle-bound
aireld (lmed at Sigiriya), is haunted by the
memory of the loss of his wife on their wedding night during an air raid and doesn’t care
whether he dies in combat – that is until he
meets a delightful Burmese girl. Then he is
shot down, together with his navigator and
a passenger secreted in the bomb bay, over
a remote desert area (Elephant Pass) and has
to survive the hostile environment and reach
a river (the Kelani Ganga, Kitulgala). Forrester
realizes he has something to live for, while
the passenger commits suicide. One online
reviewer comments: “It’s not much of a plot,
but it’s handled extremely well thanks to Parrish’s direction, which is surprisingly strong,
direct and imaginative when called for, but
still knows when to be unobtrusive as well.”
The director and screenwriter Muriel Box is
notable as she overcame many gender obstacles in the maledominated industry to become one of the most successful females in
the annals of British lm. Having won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for
The Seventh Veil (1945), Box began to direct
lms with often controversial themes such as
teenage sex, abortion, illegitimacy, and her
choice subject, the female experience, explored in The Beachcomber.
Another lm shot almost entirely on location in Ceylon in 1954 was the UK-produced The Purple Plain, directed by former actor and editor Robert Parrish (he
won a shared Oscar in 1947 for his editing
of Robert Rosen’s Body and Soul), which
TITLE
stars Gregory Peck, Win Min Than (her
only screen appearance), Bernard Lee and
Maurice Denham - supported by Ram Gopal as “Mr Phang”!
The Mosquitoes used in the lm, provided by
the RAF, were repainted in the correct camouage and carried authentic markings. The
RAF also provided much assistance on location. It was good timing for the production as
the Mosquito was withdrawn from service
the next year, 1955. The lm was a box-oce success and was nominated in the category Best
British Film of 1954 at the 8th British Academy Film Awards, while Maurice Denham was
nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
The Purple Plain is a 1954 British war film, directed by Robert
Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Canadian pilot serving in
the Royal Air Force in Burma in the closing months of the World
War II, who is battling with depression after having lost his wife.
It was nominated for two BAFTA awards.
The Purple Plain (1954)
10
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
In 1956-1957, the best-known lm of the period , the UK and US co-production The Bridge
on the River Kwai, was produced in Ceylon by Sam Spiegel and directed by David Lean,
who had already gained recognition with Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations
(1946), and Oliver Twist (1948). The lm, which stars William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack
Hawkins (his second lm in Ceylon after The Planter’s Wife) and Sessue Hayakawa, is
based on Pierre Boulle’s novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï (1952), set in Burma although
the author was a prisoner of war in Thailand. The scriptwriters were Carl Foreman and
Michael Wilson, blacklisted at the time, so they received no credits. Boulle, who knew no
English, was credited instead.
The story, which borrows the construction of
the Burma-Siam railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting, centres on Colonel Nicholson,
played by Alec Guinness, the ocer in command of a group of newly-arrived British servicemen at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
Nicholson is incarcerated in ‘the oven’, an iron
box, by the camp’s commander, Colonel Saito,
for refusing to allow his ocers to work on the
building of the bridge, but in the end Saito
relents as the work is being sabotaged by the
British prisoners.
Under the subsequent leadership of Nicholson, however, they are persuaded – although
some ocers protest - that the bridge should be
constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity. Although Nicholson believes
the bridge is a monument to British character,
his insistence on its construction becomes a
subtle form of collaboration with the enemy.
Locations included Ambepussa, Colombo,
Kandy, Mahara, Mount Lavinia Hotel, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, and, most importantly, Kitulgala and the nearby Kelani Ganga,
across which the bridge - at the time the biggest construction specially made for a lm –
was built between June and December 1956.
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
A dressed-up jeep towing mock-up carriages
was decided upon for the scene in which the
bridge is destroyed. But then the Ceylon Government Railway oered a disused 55-year-old
steam engine. Track a mile in length had to
be constructed for a locomotive to accelerate
and cross the bridge at reasonable speed. In
addition, provision on the opposite bank for
stopping a driverless train in case the explosion did not occur was necessary.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 BritishAmerican World War II film directed by David
Lean, based on the eponymous French novel
(1952) by Pierre Boulle.
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
TITLE
the explosives. A grandstand had been built
downstream for Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and other VIPs who were present on
March 11, 1957, the red-letter day. There were
ve cameras positions, one of which was a control point where Lean was stationed. However,
things did not go according to plan. Although
the driver performed his duties, one camera
position didn’t respond, so Lean decided to
abort the take. The train and its wagons full of
rubber dummies of Japanese soldiers crossed
the bridge, de-railed on the opposite side, and
overturned spectacularly. Working throughout the night, the train was put back on the
track. The next morning everything went according to plan, and after the explosion the
train fell perfectly into the middle of the river
just as Lean had envisaged.
Bridge won no less than seven Oscars in 1958
– Guinness for Best Actor in a Leading Role,
Jack Hildyard for Best Cinematography, Lean
for Best Director, Peter Taylor for Best Film Editing, Malcolm Arnold for Best Music (Scoring),
Spiegel for Best Picture, and, crazily, Boulle
for Best Screenplay based on Material from
Another Medium (Foreman and Wilson were
posthumously awarded this Oscar in 1984).
Sessue Hayakawa was nominated for Best
Supporting Actor. The lm won a host of other
awards, including a BAFTA for Best British Film
of 1958, a Grammy for Malcolm Arnold, and
Golden Globes for Guinness and Lean - even
Gus Agosti received an award for Outstanding
Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
from the Directors Guild of America. No other
lm made in the country has received such accolades.
An explosives expert from ICI supervised the
placing and ring of the charges. The engine
driver was to jump off before reaching the
bridge into a shelter, where he would throw a
switch that would be the signal for the ring of
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
11
12
The Mountain Of The Cannibal God (1978)
Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom (1984)
The Mountain Of The
Cannibal God (1978)
Following diculties with the authorities in India, the Hollywood dream-team of Steven
Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford relocated to Sri Lanka to shoot for Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom (1984). Much of this
fast-paced adventure ick was lmed near Kandy and featured many of the same locations as
the Bridge over the River Kwai. Elephants were
temporarily adopted from the nearby Pinnewala orphanage and the swarms of ‘vampire’ bats were actually just giant fruit bats
roused from their sleep by recrackers. Astute
linguists may also detect the use of Sinhala in
Former Bond girl Ursula Andress starred in the
1978 Italian ick The Mountain of the Cannibal
God, a politicallyincorrect jungle adventure in
which Adam’s Peak is somewhat sacrilegiously depicted as a cursed mountain.
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
Tarzan The Ape Man
(1981)
In 1981, Tarzan the Ape Man starring blonde
bombshell Bo Derek was shot at the Udawattekele Sanctuary in Kandy. Billed as “the most
exotic woman of our time in the most erotic
adventure of all time” the movie critics were
rather less complimentary, awarding Derek
the Razzie award for Worst Actress.
Tarzan The Ape Man (1981)
TITLE
some of the background dialogue. ROBERT
WATTS - Producer: “Elephants have a sort of
inbuilt Union Organizer in their heads. You
are governed by the speed that they can walk
from place to place. And they don’t work after
certain hours of the day. They are working animals and they know when it’s time to knock
o. They just stop working and that’s it. After
working hours they go to the river to bathe
and relax and they become a little cross if
they’re deprived of their recreation time. And
a cross elephant could prove both expensive
and dangerous on a movie set. “
The Iron Triangle (1989)
In the late 1980s, Sri Lanka was the location for
the Vietnam war lm The Iron Triangle (1989)
starring Beau Bridges. Based on the actual diary of an unknown Viet Cong soldier, this lm is
unusual in that it depicts the Vietnamese perspective of the war.
The Iron Triangle (1989)
13
14
The Second Jungle Book (1997)
Sooryavansham (1999)
The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo is a 1997 American adventure film starring Jamie Williams as Mowgli,
with Roddy McDowall and Billy Campbell in supporting roles. It is a live action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s
The Jungle Book (not based on The Second Jungle Book, as its title would suggest). The film was adapted for
the screen by Bayard Johnson and Matthew Horton. It was shot in Kandy Mountain, Sri Lanka and features
some well known Sri Lankan actors like Sunil Hettiarachchi and Raja Sumanapala.
Sooryavansham (1999)
Sooryavansham is a 1999 Bollywood movie
starring Amitabh Bachchan in a dual role,
Jayasudha, Soundarya, Rachana Banerjee, Anupam Kher and Kader Khan. Critics hailed Amitabh Bachchan’s performance as his best ever
since his comeback in 1997. The song ‘Dil Mere
Tu Deewana Hai’ is picturised 3 times in dierent moods is well written composed and sung
by respective singers. Two other tuneful songs
are ‘Peepal Ke Patwa’ and ‘Kore Kore Sapne’,
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
TITLE
both of which are picturised with Amitabh
Bachchan and Soundarya. The movie is liked
by many because of the uniqueness in its story and Amitabh Bachchan’s laudable performance.
Sri Lankan locations used in the lm include the
Kiri Vihara and Vatadage at Polonnaruwa and
Peradeniya Botanical Gardens at Kandy.
The Second Jungle Book (1997)
The Second Jungle Book (1997) was an adaptation of the classic Rudyard Kipling story. Showcasing some of the island’s most spectacular
hill country scenery, this family lm stared Jamie Williams, then 12, as the man-cub Mowgli
with Roddy McDowall and Billy Campbell in
The Second Jungle Book (1997)
supporting roles. The lm was shot in the Kandy mountains and features some well known
Sri Lankan actors like Sunil Hettiarachchi and
Raja Sumanapala.
Sooryavansham is a 1999 Bollywood drama film starring Amitabh Bachchan in a dual role, Jayasudha, Soundarya, Rachana Banerjee, Anupam Kher and Kader Khan. Although the film was a little above average at the box
office, critics hailed Amitabh Bachchan’s performance as his best ever since his comeback in 1997. It is the Hindi
remake of the Tamil film Suryavamsam, starring Sarath Kumar and Devayani.
Sooryavansham (1999)
15
16
Water (2005)
Midnights Children (2012)
Midnights Children (2012)
Water (2005)
into the rivers of the Ganges and the set designers did an excellent job of recreating the
Varanasi Ghats. Also notable was the standout
performance of 8-year old Sri Lankan Sarala
as Chuiya, the child widow in the lm, who, incredibly, had never acted before nor could not
previously speak a word of Hindi. The lm was
nominated for an Oscar (Best Foreign Film)
and went on to widespread international acclaim.
Midnight’s Children is a 2012 British-Canadian
lm adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 novel
of the same name. With a screenplay by Rushdie and directed by Deepa Mehta, the lm began principal photography in Colombo, Sri
Lanka in February 2011 and wrapped in May
2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta
feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist
groups.
Principal shooting began in February 2011 in
Colombo, Sri Lanka as Mehta feared protests
by Muslim fundamentalists if the lm was shot
in Pakistan and by Hindu fundamentalists if it
was made in Mumbai. Cast members had secrecy clauses added to their contracts to help
keep the production quiet.
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was the location for controversial lm
director Deepa Mehta’s Water (2005), a moving and vibrant story of India’s ‘widow houses’ set in 1930s Varanasi. Filming in Sri Lanka
commenced nearly six years after the original
shooting in India was abandoned following violent protests by Hindu fundamentalists. Such
was the sensitivity behind this production that
Mehta resumed lming under a pseudonym
(River Moon) and a cloak of secrecy. The Bolgoda Lake outside Colombo was transformed
Water (2005)
TITLE
Midnights Children (2012)
17
18
A Common Man (2012)
Duran Duran Music Videos
TITLE
Pop Videos Shot On Location In
Sri Lanka
1. Duran Duran – Save A Prayer (1982)
2. Duran Duran – Hungry Like A Wolf (1982)
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
A Common Man is a 2013 thriller film starring Oscar Award winner Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross
and directed by Sri Lankan lm maker Chandran Rutnam.
The lm is an ocial remake of the Indian thriller A Wednesday! but Rutnam reworked on the
screenplay of this highly suspenseful thriller.
A Common Man is an award winning movie bagging Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor
awards at the Madrid International Film Festival and bronze medal in the Feature Films category at the New York Festivals’ International Television and Film Awards.
With Contributions From Richard Boyle
A Common Man (2012)
Duran Duran Music Videos
Fans of 80s music will no doubt recall the Duran Duran music video Save a Prayer (1982).
This colourful clip was shot entirely in Sri Lanka and features Simon Le Bon and his band
frolicking in the waves, riding on elephants
and arvelling at some of the ancient ruins, interspersed with footage of local children and
sarong-robed monks. The video also includes
some fantastic aerial photography of the 5th
century AD Sigiriya rock fortress. The band’s
video for Hungry Like a Wolf (1982) was also
shot in Sri Lanka in a style reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Duran Duran Music Videos
19
20
TITLE
The Second Jungle Book (1997)
TV Series
Shot On
Location In
Sri Lanka
TV Series Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
1. Elephant Boy (1973)
Vaguely remembered TV programme from
the early 1970s which Tyne Tees television put
in the after kids TV slot just before the news.
The series centered on Toomai and the love of
his life - his elephant.
2. Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986)
Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy was a
6-part British miniseries, rst telecast in the US
on PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre. The series covers the years 1946 through 1947, during which
time the British government granted independence to India. War hero Lord Mountbatten (Nicol Williamson), although considered
a political lightweight, is appointed the task
of overseeing the transition of power. It is the
sort of test that separates the Lords from the
boys: Mountbatten must not only unite the
squabbling factions within India, but also
counteract the rhetoric of Winston Churchill
(Malcolm Terris), who is dead set against losing the Empire’s “jewel of the crown.” Once independence is ocially granted, Mountbatten
is challenged with open combat between the
Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, as well as territorial
demands from Pakistan and the Kashmir. Also
The Second Jungle Book (1997)
appearing in this epic production is Sam Dastor as Gandhi, Ian Richardson as Nehru, and
Vladek Sheybal as Jinnah.
21
22
Lester James Peries
Lester James Peries
Lester James Peries
The Father Of Modern Sri Lankan Cinema
Lester James Peries takes it all in his stride they all rest on his slight frame with ease. is journey
began in 1956 with Rekawa (The Line of Destiny), his rst feature which was trangely a commercial
failure in Ceylon, yet made it to the Mecca of world cinema - France’s Cannes Film Festival, the
following year. Ever since then there have been lms, more lms and yet more lms bearing the Lester James Peries stamp and dealing with a ariety of themes.
Now living in peaceful retirement at home,
down a Colombo street named after him, he
often declares with a twinkle in his eye,
“I’m living on borrowed time”
He modestly prefers to wax eloquent on what
the Sri Lankan cinema has done to him, rather
than the other way around.
“I was firmly planted in London. It was the
camera that lured me back to Ceylon, virtually
bringing me back from a self-imposed exile.
It brought me, an anglicized Roman Catholic,
closer to the land of my birth and its people,
and gave me a sense of identity. For this I am
thankful”
Rekava
Sandesaya
Gamperaliya
Delovak Athara
Ran Salu
Akkara Paha
Golu Hadawatha
Desa Nisa
Nidhanaya
Madol Duwa
Gehenu Lamai
Baddegama
Kaliyugaya
Yuganthaya
Awaragira
Wekande Walauwa
The Father Of Modern Sri Lankan Cinema
1956
The Sinhala cinema which had moulded itself on the South Indian commercial formula,
(songs – dancing around trees – ghts – and
they lived happily ever after endings) was
rudely shaken with this diminutive man’s entry in 1956. He had left a comfortable job in
London and took to lm making in Ceylon.
With his keen eye for visual frames, his sensitive handling of actors, and the detail paid to
his scripts, Lester James Peries was to change
the course of the Sinhala cinema and (rather
unintentionally) put in on the world cinema
map.
Rightly called the ‘Father of Modern Sinhala
Cinema’, he paved the way for a whole new
Lester James Peries
generation of avant-garde lm directors who
similarly broke away from the stereotyped formula lms and experimented with new forms
and genres.
Lester is possibly the only Sri Lankan lmmaker
whose lms have been to not one, but three
Cannes festivals. He is also the only Sri Lankan
lmmaker who has been honoured by several
countries including top honours from France
and India. The venerated Cinematheque Francaise in Paris has even classied his 1972 lm Nidhanaya (The Treasure) as “one of the classics
of world cinema”.
TITLE
1967
1972
1982
1960
1969
1976
1983
1964
1969
1978
1990
1966
1972
1980
2003
Lester James Peries
23
24
TITLE
Lester James Peries
A Selection Of Films By
Rekava (1956)
Madol Duwa (1976)
Rekava is a 1956 lm based on village life and
their mythical beliefs in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). It was the first feature length lm by Lester
James Peries. The lm was well-received internationally. It was shown at the 1957 Cannes
Film Festival and is still the only Sri-Lankan
lm to be nominated for the Palme d’Or. Since
that time it has come to become one of the
best known Sinhala movies and is considered
as marking the birth of a uniquely Sri Lankan
cinema.
A lm based on Martin Wickremasinghe’s
famous novel, the lm stars Ajith Jinadasa as
Upali, a young rebellious youth who travels to a small island to get away from the
restrictive society around him.
Gamperaliya (1963)
A lm adapted from the famous novel by Martin
Wickramasinghe. The lm was groundbreaking
in Sinhala cinema and shot entirely outside of
a studio using one lamp and hand held lights
for lighting. The movie exempli- fies Peries’s
use of family tensions to symbolize wider issues.
Films Shot On Location In Sri Lanka
Nidhanaya (1970)
Starring Sri Lankan movie legends Gamini
Fonseka and Malini Fonseka, the lm revolves
around a murder which is committed for the
purpose of gaining access to a hidden treasure. The lm won the Silver Lion of St. Mark
award at the 1972 Venice International Film
Festival and received a Diploma at the London
Film Festival. It was also chosen as the best lm
of the rst 50 years of Sri Lankan cinema.
Shriyani Amarasinghe
Joe Abeywickrama
Baddegama (1980)
Trilicia Gunawardena
Fredi Silva
Iranganie Serasinghe
Rex Kodippili
Veena Jayakody
Amarasiri
Kalansuriya Mervin Jayathunga
Vasanthi Chathurani
Lucky Dias
Gamini Fonseka
Denawaka Hamine
D. R. Nanayakkara
Ravindra Randeniya
Geetha Kumarasinghe
Jeevan Kumaratunga
Henry Jayasena
Anoja Weerasinghe
Manel Wanaguru
Sanath Gunathilaka Swarna Mallawarachchi
Sunil Hettiarachchi
Jackson Anthony
Tony Ranasinghe
H. A Perera
Tissa wijesundara
Rukmani Devi
A lm based on the 1913 book The Village in
the Jungle by Leonard Woolf that follows
the lives of village people in British Colonial Sri Lanka.
Kaliyugaya (1982)
Malani Fonseka
Adapted from the novel by Martin Wickramasinghe the lm is a sequel to the classic
lm Gamperaliya. It was a Director’s Fortnight selection at the 1982 Cannes Film
Festival.
Robin fernando
Wekande Walauwa (2002)
Starring Ravindra Randeniya and Malini
Fonseka, the lm was Sri Lanka’s rst ever
submission for the Academy Awards. The
lm also had screenings at many International lm festivals. Wekande Walauwa fol-
Roy De Silva
Sumana Amarasinghe
Sabeetha Perera
Sanoja Bibile
Shanthi Lekha
Legends of
Sri Lankan Cinema
Vijaya Kumarathunga
Lester James Peries
Chandani Seneviratne
Maureen Charuni
Lester James Peries
25
Nadeeka Ggunasekara
ELEPHANT STABLES