Beyond Imagination

Success by sheer determination and courage :

In a world dominated by men and hostile to women, Enokaa's career in the highly competitive field of cinema and tele-drama was always an uphill task. From scratch, she was aware of the fact that one slippery step in her career as a young woman would have disastrous consequences.

Therefore, her every step was both cautious and steady that led her to the heights she achieved in the arena of Sri Lankan cinema and fine arts as the second professional woman movie maker thirty years after Sumithra Peiris entered Sinhala cinema as a woman director.

Enokaa's liberal upbringing in a household where democracy prevailed, would have shaped her adult character to be a fiercely independent and liberal and also a disciplined one.

Sulang Kirilli, A liberated woman’s dowry for the humanity: Aesthetic quality incomparable.

At the exclusive interview with NHK

Her parents were drawn to diverse fields; father being a lawyer and mother, a teacher. From her formative days, she dreamt of becoming a film director and watched films with keen interest. It was that interest which would have tempted her father to present her a video player on her birthday.

The artistic legacy of her father, Tudor Kirthinanda who was an avid listener of classical music; his favourites being Prof. Ediriweera Sarachandra's 'Maname' and maestro Premasiri Khemadasa's 'Goluhadawathin Thunveni Yamayata', would have had a lasting impact on Enokaa's artistic life and her informed choice of music.

In fact, Khemadasa being her father's friend, used to spend time at Enokaa's and for a moment the house became a forum of intellectual discussions, appreciating and criticizing the art and culture.

Much of her pocket money was spent on video and audio cassettes and even during her school days at Sujatha College, she engaged in arts and culture and used to produce dramas.

After sitting for the Advanced Level examination from Vishakha Vidyalaya, Enokaa Sathyangani entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo to read a LLB.

However, her abide interest in the art and culture, particularly; in cinema did not die down inspite of her heavy dose of studying law. While at the university, she stumbled upon an advertisement posted in a newspaper by Telecine for a Trainee Director. So she applied and was selected among forty candidates who posed for the interview.

This would have proved to be extremely profitable year as she got the rare opportunity of working with pioneers in the field of advertising D. B. Nihalsinghe and D. B. Suranimala. As a young woman, Enokaa still recalled how she was offered the prospect of directing a tele-drama for Teleview.

She was given a limited period of time (interval between producing tele-dramas by Teleview) and a limited set at Teleview tele-drama village. It was a litmus test for her talents to write a script for a tele-drama to be produced at the village with a set of wattle and daub houses stretched over a land mass of half an acre.

'Nidinethi Rayaka Sihinayak', a story woven around four characters was shot and which was later telecast on Rupavahini on March 8, 1997. Then on ward, she was flooded with tele-dramas, commencing her first tele-series offered by Teleview.

She was adjudged the best director thrice at the Sumathi and OCIC tele-drama festivals and subsequently won highest number of International Awards among the Sri Lankan movie makers at International Film festivals.

By then though she had become an accomplished tele-drama director, her cherished childhood ambition was to be a movie maker. When Tissa Abeysekera became the Chairman of the National Film Corporation, it had been mentioned in one of the news paper articles that he reactivated the National Film Development Fund which granted film makers 100% interest free loan to make movies.

The National Film Development Fund had been set up by D.B Nihalsinghe and had been in limbo for some time until it was re-activated by Tissa Abeysekara when he became the Chairman of the National Film Corporation.

It was the Fund which helped to birth several artistic films including Dharmasiri Bandaranaike's 'Thunveni Yamaya' and Wasantha Obeysekara's 'Palangetiyo'.

The article further stated that the fund intended to produce new film makers to Sri Lankan cinema. She was reminiscent with gratitude to Tissa Abeysekara for re-activating the fund as she is the only woman film maker produced by the project.

Thus, was born 'Sulang Kirille' (The wind Bird) making Enokaa a film maker. Though the film was based on a true story, Enokaa did not intend to stick to conventional structure of sequential story telling; instead she evolved her own structure to bring to light the lives of the workers at the Free Trade Zone.

'Sulang Kirille' (The wind Bird) was not only a turning point in Enokaa's career but it had also shed light on myriad myopic bureaucrats in general and understanding of the animal in particular.

So much so that she recollects with a sense of mockery that she learnt more of 'human being' from 'Sulang Kirille' (The wind Bird) than the medium.

Ivan Weerakkody, then officer in charge of sanctioning Sri Lankan films for International Film festivals, had blatantly refused to sanction the film stating that it should not be fit to shown at any international film festival and it is not up to standard.

She had to spend her hard saved deposit of 1.5 million rupees on 'Sulang Kirille' to represent it at International Film Festivals and to publicize the film.

However, the irony of the entire sordid affair was that the film which Ivan Weerakkody denounced as one which should not be shown at an international film festivals, had, so far, won the highest number of awards at International Film Festivals in the history of 60 years of Sri Lankan cinema.

In a parliamentary debate, the issue was raised by the Ministers T. B. Ekanayaka and Mahindananda Aluthgamage which was recorded in the hanzard. Following 'Rekhawa', 'Sulang Kirille' was the Sri Lankan debut film to enter the main competition at an A grade International Film Festival when it was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

So far after Dr. Lester James Peries's and Dharmasena Pathiraja's films, Ashoka Handagama's 'Aksharaya', Prasanna Vithanage's 'Iramadiyama' and Prasanna Jayakody's 'Sankara' had been selected for main competitions at A grade International Film Festivals. Vimukthi Jayasundara's 'Sulanga Enu Pinisa' had also competed in the director's first film section at Cannes.

One of the memorable experiences that Enokaa had in Japan was the overwhelming response she had from Japanese audience for the film and the exclusive interviews on the NHK television and the documentary on the film aired by Fuji Television channel.

Though 'Sulang Kirilli' was not offered an award at the festival, the films in the main competition such as 'City of Gods' by Fernando Millers which was nominated as the best director at Oscars.

Though 'Sulang Kirille' was on par with other films exhibited at the festival in terms of sound effect owing to technical constrains, the film was judged on the basis of its originality and genuineness of creativity. 'Sulang Kirille' was selected for the main competition at 22 International Film Festivals though she could not participate in most of them personally due to economic hardships as she was not offered a sponsorship by the National Film Corporation.

The criteria adapted by the International audience in evaluating a film is the contribution it makes to world cinema. For them, what matters is not the sexuality of the director, whether the movie promotes the so-called culture or whether it was directed by a male or a female and the way in which sex scenes were depicted but the artistic quality of the film and genuine attempt made by the movie maker depicting life in an authentic manner and in that socio-cultural milieu.

From the youth to the old men in Japan reacted positively to the film questioning the minute symbols of the film whereas in Sri Lanka, the very persons engaged in movie making considered the film as complex structure.

However, when it was shown to women workers in the Free Trade Zone, they had no difficulty in reading the film.

A symbol is something which should not be implanted in a film but should be merged well into the structure so as to give a third dimension to the storyline. Her symbolic language she used in the film, though hailed as a complex diction by International audience had been maliciously criticized by some of the representatives of the Sri Lankan film industry Sri Lankan. The film won 24 National awards including those for best Director and Script-writer.

Sulang Kirilli deals with the issue of illegal abortion in its most appropriate context; among the unwed women workers in the Free Trade Zone. It was based on a true incident of abandoning a child in a factory toilet. Enokaa does not approve the way in which unwed mothers and illegitimate children are treated in Sri Lankan society.

'It is estimated that between 1,000 to 2000 illegal abortions take place every day in Sri Lanka, when I was doing a documentary for the Government (National Women's Bureau) on the garment factory workers,' said Enokaa.

The story revolves around Rathie (played by award winning actress Dhamitha Abeyratne) and her soldier friend Shantha played by Linton Semage.

The movie shows how the Rathie's dream world was shattered with the revelation that Shantha is already married when she told of her conception, dreaming of motherhood and happy wedded life. The scenes unfold in a non-linear sequence as it happened in reality.

Speaking on the existing film culture in Sri Lanka where a film, a piece of art is measured in terms of the reading of its movie maker, his/her sexuality and image projected on the society or the political affiliations rather than the pros and cons of the work of art. This has a debilitating effect on the film-makers.

The work of art is not read on its relative merits of depiction and contextual relevance but on political and social stand of its creator, his/her personal life and outlook on the society. The criticism would be venomous and virulent if the ideology of the creator goes against the popular culture and dominant social discourse of the day.

However, she does not believe in the concept that majority of the Sri Lankan audience is immature. The film had been shown to diverse audience and they had also demonstrated a remarkable degree of understanding of the film with its imagery and complex structure.

They have interpreted some aspects of the film in a hitherto unknown perspective on the story. A certain section in favour of popular culture tries their best to portray the work of art which explores and experiments the media with controversial themes, as something which is difficult for the Sri Lankan audience to understand and created with the aim of securing awards at International Film festivals.

This idea is being spread with the parochial aim of destroying the value based works of art which this section deemed as a possible threat to their survival in the medium. The sub-culture dominated by gangsterism, favouritism has effectively closed the doors for a constructive discourse among the film makers which would otherwise be immensely educative.

Enokaa is of the opinion that contemporary Sri Lankan Artistic cinema is always more or less a resultant of individual struggle of film-makers despite the caustic attacks from the popular cinema which categorized artistic films as those aimed at securing awards at International Awards or tailor-made for International audiences on themes turned out from social scourges.

Contemporary cinema is a reflection of culture, the general understanding of the population and the values of society. However, the Sri Lankan perception is that films should be made to attract more audience to theatres in order to salvage film industry.

It has been totally neglected that a space should be there in the Industry for contemporary artistic film makers who tried to experiment with the medium and to broaden its traditional vistas even outside mainstream cinema.

However, the tragedy in contemporary Sri Lankan cinema is that a handful of artistes with the blessings of the political powers that he claimed the ownership of the medium, reading and interpreting it to meet their ends.

Then the so-called interpreters decide on the mainstream discourse of the country and attempting to crucifix value-based works of art which are not in line with the dominant interpretation and their creators labelling them as anti-cultural and unpatriotic.

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Internationally acclaimed film maker

'The three key names of modern cinema; Theo Angelopoulos, Abbas Kiarostami and Aleksander Sokurov had a great platform throughout our festival. At 21st Cinematica one of the very young realist; Enokaa Sathyangani from Sri Lanka who had obtained recognition in Asian festivals, had to be gotten up to the above list.

In her talented premium Sulang Kirilli (The Wind Bird); reveals the oppression of a woman as poetic fantasy liberation.'

XXI International film festival of Cinematica del Uruguay in Latin America (Official Announcement/The revelation of the year 2003) Very realistic and heartwrenching Seattle's Independent South Asian Film Festival - USA - September 2005 HHHH "The realistic nature and frightening loneliness of going through the 9 months of child-bearing with the unwed mother surprisingly hit me hard inspite of growing up in a similar society in India.

The director did a great job of showing us the sadness, happiness and selflessness of the human spirit in the face of extreme adversity."

Reviewer: Chetna Bail/USA

Visually Stunning - Creatively Brilliant

Best Cinematography Award (Feature Film)/New York International Independent Film Festival 2005.

For its human and sensitive treatment of the humdrum of our existence that s at once specific and universal in its appeal.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan - Veteran Filmmaker/India

It is a Great Movie

Shigren Okada - Chairman Tokyo International Film Festival 2002

"For the Humanism created beyond Cultural and Political boundaries portrait in Cinematography"

Honourable jury mention/Prix Leonardo International Film Festival/Italy

Sri Lanka's film industry is tiny, a far cry from the blockbuster-producing giants in Bollywood and Mollywood across the Palk Strait.

But it bristles with talent. Many of its productions have been world class, though few have got across to the world outside. Enokaa Sathyangani is the latest torchbearer of a fairly long tradition in Sinhala cinema fathered by Lester James Peiris. Enokaa's narrative is taut and riveting, with each frame and piece of dialogue intricately crafted.

She had drawn every frame of the film and taken great care to see that the sets were authentic and that the lighting brought out the mood of the scene.

P. K. Balachandran/HindustanTimes/India/january 2005

Sri Lankan cinema is highly acclaimed abroad - its films have won dozens of awards at international festivals. Enokaa Sathyangani's latest film the Wind Bird, broaches the taboo subject of abortion. It has scooped awards at half a dozen International film festivals.

Chole Arnold/BBC - correspondent/UK-October, 2004

This is a poignant film, which uses symbolism but doesn't overdo it. The movie does not invest in glamour. It tells its tale by extraordinary good portrayal of the ordinary. Yet if I were asked to pick one word that best describes the movie, I would pick "sensuous".

Rajpal Abeynayake - Sunday Times/October 6, 2002