Directors of the Sri Lankan Film Dirty, Yellow Darkness Kalpana and Vindana Ariyawansa today said they feel great to be in India on featuring of their first film at the 46^th International Film Festival of India.

             Interacting with media persons at a press conference at Media Centre on the sidelines of IFFI the duo said India Cinema have played a great role in influencing  Sri Lankan cinema. The Sri Lankan Film industry which could not grow initially due to the war period is now witnessing a transition due to west. However, the Srilankan government is not funding the film industry but wants more foreign production of films in the country, said Ariyawansa.

            The film deals with a well-educated Vishwa, who has a successful career in advertising and a beautiful wife, Samadi. But he suffers from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, which he painfully conceals from the world on a daily basis…. Specially, he fears his own urine and feels that it’s contaminating everything around him. Unable to endure his eccentric and strange behaviour, Samadi leaves him and moves in with her parents. Lonely Vishwa loses his job and descends into a life of prescription drug abuse. Vishwa reluctantly admits himself to a public mental hospital, knowing there will be heavy social consequences in a culture that greatly stigmatizes mental illness. At the hospital, Vishwa’s eye-opening and often hilarious encounters with the other patients give him a new appreciation for life, helping him to realize all that he has neglected. His blissful memories of Samadi are reawakened and he insists on returning home after only two weeks with the hope of reuniting with his estranged wife….

Kalpana Ariyawansa : Colombo-born graduated with  a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. He worked as a concept and storyboard artist in the animation and ad industries in the US. In 2012, Kalpana worked as assistant scriptwriter and line producer on Prasanna Vithanage’s  With you, without you.  

Vindana Ariyawansa gave up his college career to embark on independent studies in filmmaking while in the US. After returning to SriLanka in 2004, he worked as a consultant in marketing, media and IT technology, and as a copywriter. In 2011, he began writing reviews of Hollywood films for Sri Lanka’s oldest arts newspaper, Sarasaviya.

Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, The Director of the film ‘Antonia’ while interecting with the media persons said his film is being premiered ever, first at the film festival. Filomarino first made a splash in Locarno in 2010 when his atmospheric short “Diarchia” starring Louuis Garrel, Riccardo Scamarcio and Alba Rohrwacher, scooped the Pard of Tomorrow and went on to earn an honorable mention at Sundance. “Antonia” is produced by Luca Guadagnino, whom Filomarino worked for a.d. on “ I am Love”. “Antonia” is similarly set in Milan’s high society, albeit during the 1930s.

Brian Perkins- The Director of the film Golden Kingdom and Jai Hogg, Assistant Director of the film Sunset, Tailgate and Tinted who also interected with media said that the Indian audience will enjoy their films. American filmmaker Brian Perkins has travelled extensively through the remote parts of Asia and India. After creating a network of relationships in the monasteries and villages of Burma---picking up conversational Burmese along the way—he was in a unique position to bring GOLDEN KINGDOM to audiences, meeting all the extreme challenges shooting on location in the country provided.

A student at both New York University and UC-Berkeley, Brian received numerous acknowledgements and prizes during his studies. He has directed numerous music videos in Los Angeles and New York City, and was involved in Alma Harel’s BOMBAY BEACH (2011), which was premiered at the Berlinale and won the Tribeca Film Festival’s top prize that year.

In 2013, Perkins founded Bank and Shoal, an independent feature film production company with offices in the United States and Germany. Bank and Shoal is dedicated to bringing intelligent and impactful projects to audiences in the United States, Europe and the world. GOLDEN KINGDOM is Brian Perkin’s debut feature film.

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SV/BVP