Prasanna Vithanage On Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis; Power Dynamics In Society & Marriage In Award-Winning Feature ‘Paradise’ – Mumbai Film Festival
02.11.2023 - 06:25
/ deadline.com
Paradise, directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage, is playing in the Icons: South Asia section of Mumbai Film Festival, fresh from its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival where it won the Jiseok Award.
The film follows an Indian couple on holiday in Sri Lanka, where they are touring the Ramayana Trail, a set of locations connected to the Indian mythological epic, just as the country’s economic crisis is starting to kick off. Despite the beauty and signs of impending chaos around them, the husband seems more preoccupied with the Netflix commission he’s just won, prioritizing his professional ambitions, while the wife questions the tour guide’s interpretation of the Ramayana.
When the couple are held at knifepoint and have their phones and laptops stolen, they ask for help from a stoic local police officer who quickly produces three suspects. Their relationship is then severely tested as different values and the complex power dynamics between husband and wife start to emerge.
Produced by Newton Cinema and presented by Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies, the film stars Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran, Shyam Fernando and Mahendra Perera and was shot by award-winning cinematographer Rajeev Ravi (Dev D, Liar’s Dice). Anto Chittilappilly’s Netwon Cinema also recently produced Don Palathara’s Malayalam-language Family, which premiered at this year’s Rotterdam film festival.
Vithanage is one of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated directors with credits including Purahanda Kaluwara (1997), Flowers Of The Sky (2008) and Children Of The Sun (2019), which won the UNESCO Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
As it emerged from the pandemic, Sri Lanka suffered a major economic crisis in March 2022, with the country