The Forsaken Land
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"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..."
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Sri Lankan Film THE FORSAKEN LAND will open at the New York
Museum of the Moving Image (June 23-July 2)
 On June 23, the Museum of the Moving Image will present the North American premiere engagement of The Forsaken Land, the Sri Lankan film that won the prestigious Camera d'Or prize at the 2005 Canne Film Festival.
Museum of the Moving Image (www.movingimage.us)
35 Avenue at 36 Street, Astoria (Queens), New York 11106
To RSVP or request a screener VHS, call Tomoko Kawamoto, 718.784.4520 x225.
Press kit and images are available online at
http://www.newyorkerfilms.com/nyf/t_elements/forsakenland/forsakenland1_t.htm
The Forsaken Land, which won the prestigious Camera d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, is the auspicious feature film debut of director Vimukthi Jayasundara. The film is distributed by New Yorker Films. Set in Sri Lanka, The Forsaken Land (Sulanga enu Pinasa) is a mesmerizing, poetic film that captures the disorienting quality of daily life during a never-ending civil war. After two decades of violent ethnic strife, a tenuous cease-fire holds between the Sinhala government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Composed of uncanny, startling set pieces portraying death, sex, and waiting, the film conveys the experiences of this uneasy truce through the eyes of one household: Anura (Mahendra Perera), a soldier who mans a remote checkpoint; his jaded, cheating wife; and his sister who still sees hope in the future.
"While its haunting images evoke the films of Tarkovsky, and it has the laconic humor of Samuel Beckett, The Forsaken Land is the work of an important and original new film director," said David Schwartz, the Museum's Chief Curator.
The Forsaken Land
Sri Lanka, 2005, 108 mins., 35mm. New Yorker Films. Winner of the Caméra d'Or, 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara. With Mahendra Perera, Kaushalya Fernando.
Friday, June 23, at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday + Sunday, June 24 + 25, at 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday + Thursday, June 28 + 29, at 1:30 p.m.
Friday-Sunday, June 30-July 2, at 7:30 p.m.
MUSEUM INFORMATION
Hours: Wednesdays & Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Fridays, 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. Saturdays & Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Tuesday, school groups only by appointment.)
Film Screenings: See above for schedule.
Museum Admission: $10.00 for adults; $7.50 for persons over 65 and for students with ID; $5.00 for children ages 5-18. Children under 5 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Paid admission includes film screenings (except for special ticketed events)
Location: 35 Avenue at 36 Street in Astoria.
Subway: R or V trains (R or G on weekends) to Steinway Street. N or W trains to 36 Avenue.
Program Information: Telephone: (718) 784-0077; Website: www.movingimage.us
Tomoko Kawamoto
Public Information Coordinator
Museum of the Moving Image
35 Avenue at 36 Street
Astoria, New York 11106
tel 718-784-4520
tkawamoto@movingimage.us
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from SepiaMutiny.com, June 6, 2005
Director Vimukthi Jayasundara this past May became the first Sri Lankan to ever win the prestigious Camera d'Or award for Best First Film [in 2005], or any award for that matter, at the world reknowned Cannes Film Festival for his Sinhalese language film Sulanga Enu Pinisa (The Forsaken Land).
Jaysundara, who was trained trained at the Institute of the Cinema and Television of Pune, in India, shares the award at Cannes with an American, Miranda July for her work, Me And You And Everyone We Know.
When asked to talk about the film, Jayasundara said, "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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