| | | Vimukthi JAYASUNDARA
SRI LANKA
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Biography and Filmography
Born in Ratnapura in southern Sri Lanka in 1977. Journalist, film critic and writer for the screen, he attended the Institute for Film and Television in Pune, India, from 1998 to 2001.
After making The Land Of Silence, a documentary in black and white about the victims of the civil war which was selected for several festivals (Marseilles, Rotterdam, Berlin), Vimukthi Jayasundara studied in France at the Fresnoy School of Art before becoming a resident at the Cinéfondation of the Festival de Cannes in 2003.
In 2004 he directed his first feature, La terre abandonnée, which was awarded the Camera d'Or at the Festival de Cannes 2005.
Ahasinwitai is his second feature film.
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Project presented in The Atelier
Un Certain Regard : "The Forsaken Land" by Vimukthi Jayasundara - 14/05/2005
Un Certain Regard presented The Forsaken Land, qualifying for a Camera d'Or award. The film takes us to Sri Lanka in an indefinite and desolate post-war setting, almost in the middle of nowhere: "God is absent, but still the sun rises, over a lonely home between two trees in a forsaken land."
Director Vimukthi Jayasundara talked about his intentions for this first feature film: "If The Forsaken Land has something to do with my country's history, it is especially through its conveyance of the suspended state of being simultaneously without war and without peace – in between the two. I wanted to capture this strange atmosphere... For me, filmmaking is an ideal vehicle for expressing the mental stress people experience as a result of the emptiness and indecisiveness they feel in their lives. With the film, I wanted to examine emotional isolation in a world where war, peace and God have become abstract notions."
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The Caméra d'Or landed in a tie, to Sulanga Enu Pinisa (The Forsaken Land) by Vimukthi Jayasundara, which had been selected for Un Certain Regard, and Me And You And Everyone We Know by Miranda July, which screened on the Critics' Week program. Abbas Kiarostami and Milla Jovovich had the honor of presenting the prizes.
"I want to thank the Jurors, and thank the Festival for inviting me," said American director Miranda July. "I'm still amazed to have gotten all the way here. I must thank the audience, for being so great: adults and children who saw my film were wonderful. I must also thank MK2 and my production company. Getting an award like this for your first film is like having someone tell you, "You're doing fine, you can keep it up." Vimukthi Jayasundara expressed his thanks in this way: "Good evening, and thank you very much to the members of the Jury. This is a Prize for Asia and Sri Lanka, and I'm very proud. Thank you very much!"
At the press conference for the award-winners, Miranda July went on further: "My film comes out in the US in New York on June 17 and in July it comes out in the rest of the country. All the major territories are sold. I'm not sure about Germany, but all the other major ones were sold...This day for me started 15 hours ago in Seattle when I got a phone call that said get in a cab now and go to the airport. I took pictures along the way and this is the film I'm going to show on my website tomorrow morning."
As for the director Vimukthi Jayasundara from Sri Lanka, "I try to express myself despite a difficult situation I had making this film and it's quite an experimental work."
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