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| Sunday, 5 May 2002 |
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Golden Reel for Bennet Ratnayake by Mahes Perera
The Tiburon International Film Festival recently awarded the Golden Reel for Best Direction to Bennet Ratnayake for his film Aswesuma (The Compensation). This International Festival which was held in Tiburon, California saw the Iranian movie on Maryam win the Best Picture Award while the Best Short Film Award went to Sweet. Bennet Ratnayake who was delighted that his creativity has produced such a positive reaction was however unhappy that up to the time of this interview, the award and the relevant documents which were handed over to the Sri Lankan consulate in San Francisco had not reached him, nor even the film corporation. "Even if we make a good film we don't have the funds to promote and publicise the film. We need support from the Cultural Ministry but we don't get it. They are not interested in supporting good films and I think in the future the Ministry must consider giving assistance to film makers to market non-commercial films. 'Aswesuma' was a low budget film and I haven't earned a single cent profit after 100 days of screening. But I managed to settle my debits. This is the first time the Best Director Award has been given at the Tiburon International Film Festival", comments Bennet Ratnayake. The film which will be screened here for two to three months focuses on the 'inner peace of a man', who confesses to the police of a triple murder committed by him. "The film carries a flash back of the main character and I know of many people living with their sins. I wanted through the film to explain how they can get rid of their guilt. It is a humane story." From where does he draw the influences in direction? "From my early years in Matale where I was born, I was interested in film technique. I left Matale when I was 18 years, came to Colombo in search of work. I watched a lot of movies in theatres and cultural films at various diplomatic missions and the keeness to make a movie became an obsession in me. I was inspired by Lester James Peries direction his intellectual approach, his editing style, location selections the manner in which he captures beautiful scenes and how he presents it to the viewer. Internationally, there is Satyajit Ray who is closer to our culture. I was influenced by his ideas on how best to produce a low budget film with humane aspect themes. He gave me a lot of ideas. Then there's Kurasova whose direction in acting and editing was inspiring and I always made it a point to watch his films. It has been a long hard journey for me to reach this point of recognition to win the Best Director Award at the Tiburon Festival in California and I'm overjoyed at my achievement." Will there be a another film for the audiences? "I've written the script. I'm looking for a good producer to fund the film. Once I complete the film I intend trying the international market then we know where we stand. Because the majority of Sri Lankan film goers have an attraction for the low quality films. It is difficult to make a good film and earn money. A non commercial good quality film has an appreciative market internationally." Aswesuma credits: -Screened at the International Film Festivals held in Montreal, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Dacca, Kerala, Mumbai and Houston. -Won the platinum Award for the Best Feature Film at Houston in 2001. - Won an award from the International Film Critics Association. -Won the Don Quijote Award presented by the International Federation of Film Societies.Invited for screening at the Fukuoka International Film Festival Japan in September 2002. -Invited for screening at Alexandria IFF in August 2002, the Florence
Film Festival in October 2002 and Calcutta in October 2002. Glimpse of Lanka Sri Lankans distanced from their mother country and domiciled in Vancouver, Canada were deeply entranced with the performance of 'Glimpse of Lanka' a cultural pageant staged on March 22 at the Terry Fox theatre. The show was produced by Sri Lankan teacher and reputed dramatist, Desha Kala Keerthie, Irangani Kulatantri. Under her inspired direction she succeeded in no small measure in bringing out the artistic talent of the Sri Lankan youth living in Vancouver, to portray the culture and heritage of Sri Lanka. In the picture Chalaka Liyanage played Vijaya while the role of Kuveni
was acted by Mayuri Wijeratne. Young high scorers in performance Young talent in classical music was effectively spotlighted at a well presented concert held at the residence of Mano Chanmugam, the Sri Lanka Representative of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.(ABRSM) The concert on April 24 was a felicitation to the Chief Executive of the ABRSM, Richard Morris. The performers were the young high scorers, some of Sri Lanka's best teacher performers and guest artistes Preshanthi Navaratnam and Ronald Samm and Andrew Collett. The young musicians presented choral and solo voice performances, piano duets and solo piano and flute recitals of works by Mendelsshon, Schubert, Mozart, Verdi, Liszt and Gershwin., Special mention must be made of the exhilarating performance of the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 by the sixteen year old pianist Eshantha Peiris which was a fitting finale to the concert. Also the Menaka Singers rendition of Mendelsshon's Ich Volt Meiner
Liebergosse Sich, the high scorer Dhilan Gnanadurai's singing of Mozart's
Non piu andrai, and the performance of the young Next Generation playing
flutes, pianos, piccolo, descant recorder and treble recorder, directed by
their teacher performer flautist Surekha Amerasinghe. Opera singer in concert for charity The principal soloist of the world famous Kirov Opera Company in St. Petersburg, Russia, Margarita Alaverdian will give a single concert performance on Monday May 13 at the Golden Ballroom of The Lanka Oberoi. Her collaborator in this dinner concert for charity is conductor/pianist Rohan Joseph de Saram. Winner of the Maria Callas International Vocal Competition (1989)
Margarita Alaverdian who has graciously agreed to perform for the benefit
of the Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication impaired, will sing
well known arias from Gluck, Bellini, Verdi and Gianni Schicchi. 'Aladdin' to light up your life The magical pantomime 'Aladdin' with a cast of 140 children will go on the boards at Lionel Wendt, Theatre from Friday May 10 to Sunday May 12. This fun filled entertainment for the family is presented by the students of 'The Yolande School of Speech and Drama', directed by Samantha de Soysa and choreographed by Oosha Saravanamuttu. The musical direction is by Soundarie David. The well known director of Indu Dharmasena plays the role of the evil uncle while Christopher Stephen is 'Aladdin' in the pantomime. |
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