By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Vimukthi Jayasundara
Starring: Hemasiri Liyanage | Kaushalaya Fernando | Nilupili Jayawardena
Original language title: Sulanga Enu Pinisa
Country: france, sri_lanka
Year: 2005
Running time: 107
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413358/combined
Bruce says: “THE FORSAKEN LAND is testimony of the long term effects of civil war on a small village in Sri Lanka. A soldier
and his wife live with his sister in a remote house which is nothing more than a two room hut with an outhouse. An army tank surrealistically patrols the nearby fields looking for what we are never sure. The war is over. Drunken soldiers with nothing better to do arrive and kidnap the village soldier, take him to a riverbank and throw him naked into the water. The soldiers leave and he has to walk home naked. His wife has been spying on one of her husband’s friends who frequently makes love to a woman
in the woods. The woman later is found pregnant and murdered by the roadside with no clue as to what happened.
“The soldier’s sister is educated and is trying to get a teaching job in a far away town. She appears fearful when she takes public transportation to her job interview, behavior she undoubtedly learned during wartime. She and her sister-in-law don’t get along. When the soldier’s wife begins to have an affair with her husband’s friend, the soldier’s sister becomes suspicious.
“While there is no true narrative, every scene has an intensity that moves the story forward. Director Javasundara gives us a vision of life in Sri Lanka – a life with little hope, an abundance of despair and a lack of meaningful drama. He paints a lonely, desolate landscape. 3 cats”