A Letter of Fire

Him, Here After

Returning to his community after defeat in the Sri Lankan civil war, a former Tamil rebel known only as "Him" faces hostility, suspicion and bitter recriminations in Asoka Handagama's beautifully elegiac meditation on the aftermath of war. (TIFF)

Moon Lady

This film indicated the formation of a cinematic language consisting of hyper-realistic images. The film won the award for Most Promising Director at the Critics' awards in 1994. It was also awarded Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay at the 1998 OCIC awards.

Rani

The film follows Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttu's relentless pursuit of justice after the tragic abduction and murder of her son, Richard de Zoysa, a journalist, writer, and human rights activist, in 1990.

The Dawning of the Day

Pablo arrives in British Ceylon from Burma to flee a traumatic relationship that had changed from love into passionate obsession. He notices a young pariah woman who empties his outhouse every morning. To Pablo she appears divine. In one morning, he takes her hand and leads her into his bed. Unable to believe or accept her bizarre fate, she remains passive throughout the series of events that unfold thereafter.

Let Her Cry

When an alluring young undergrad becomes infatuated with her nearly retired professor, she stirs up the man's humdrum home life in a most unusual way.

Flying with One Wing

While working as a mechanic to support a wife at home, Manju struggles to overcome every attempt made at discovering their assigned sex.

This Is My Moon

Set in a Northern border village during the Sri Lankan Civil War, a Sinhalese soldier meets a Tamil girl in the battlefield. The soldier leaves the army with the girl, and goes back to his village. The arrival of the Tamil girl into this predominantly Sinhala village causes a stir within the community, where they collectively decide to send her to a refugee camp. "This is My Moon" is a controversial examination of village life, where rural myths are shattered to reveal a deeper reality of a society torn apart by war.

My Kind of Hero

An adolescent boy with no birth certificate denied access to free education. He overwhelms the whole country and achieves what he has been dreaming in daylight.

Asandhimitta

A renowned filmmaker receives a mysterious call from an old college mate in the middle of the night. Asandhimitta, whom he recalls as a large and voluptuous woman, asks him to make a film based on her life. She then confesses that she was recently involved in a triple homicide of three women and is taken into custody shortly afterwards. Intrigued, the filmmaker attempts to piece together her fragmented story for a film while Asandhimitta herself awaits her fate in a local prison.

Sanda Dadayama / Moon Hunt

Moon Hunt is filled with magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder. The story moves so fast that a typical cinemagoer may find it difficult to follow it to understand the core message it delivers. But that is typical of all Handagama creations. Unless you dive into them several times, with patience in mind and heart, you cannot learn of what he says. But once it dawns on you, you will find them rare gems that have been carefully cut and polished for you to enjoy the hidden beauty in them. Till then, Handagama himself is magic, mystery, and wonder.

Her. Him. The Other

Three Sri Lankan filmmakers renowned for their internationally acclaimed films based on the Sri Lankan civil war, join in to make one film to express their views on post-war reality.

Dheepan

Three war-torn strangers posing as a family flee Sri Lanka’s civil war to start over in a troubled Paris suburb, but their past traumas resurface as they struggle to survive in their new environment.