History of Sri Lankan Cinema
The country was still Ceylon when the cinema landed on the island in 1903, on request of the British governor of the time, West Ridgeway. Intended then only for the colonists and the anglicized local populations, these first cinematographic projections will quickly create an interest among the local populations, leading to the very fast installation of permanent theaters. Most of the films shown were Indian or English, some of which were shot in Sri Lanka, although they were not national productions. According to sources, the first Sri Lankan film dates from the 1930s-1940s. In 1933, a production entitled Paliganeema or Revenge was presented in Colombo as a Sri Lankan film, although it could not be attributed to a specific filmmaker. Although it is difficult to recontextualize this work, it is certain that in 1947, the film Kadawunu Poronduwa or The Broken Promise was directed by Sri Lankan Jyotish Sinha and presented at the Kingsley Cinema with great pomp and ceremony. This lilting melodrama, although strongly influenced by Indian cinema of the same period, is nevertheless the first Sinhala film, the foundation of the history of national cinema.
Among the outstanding figures of the Sri Lankan 7th art, it is difficult to miss the director Lester James Peries. Tired of the variations of Bollywood films offered by the industry of his country, he directs his camera towards the local populations and treats national subjects by filming on location and on location, a small revolution. Directing, one after the other, The Conquest of the Dry Zone in 1954 and Rekava or The Line of Fate in 1956, the filmmaker travelled to many international festivals, before being selected for the Cannes Festival in 1957. Despite critical success, it was not until 1964 and Gamperaliya or Change in the Village by the same director that local Sri Lankan cinema found its audience, until then confined to Indian-style productions that were rocambolic and lilting, populated by light subjects. Other films, focusing on the condition of women in Sri Lankan society, were also released in the following years, such as Gehenu Lamai (1978), directed by Sumitra Peries, Lester's collaborator and wife. More recently, the international success of Purahanda Kaluwara (2001) at the Singapore Film Festival, or Vimukthi Jayasundara's The Abandoned Land (2005), a portrait of a region of the country ravaged by civil war, won the Golden Camera at Cannes. On the domestic front, epic frescoes such as Aba (2008) or Aloko Udapadi (2017) attracted crowds, and were sometimes exported to India or other Asian countries. Today, Sri Lankan cinema seems to be more dynamic than ever, with a significant number of films produced each year and an ever-growing loyal audience.
Between jungle and history, filming in Sri Lanka
For a long time a British colony, Ceylon has inspired many filmmakers in search of exoticism. In Elephant Walk (1954), the young actress Elizabeth Taylor (or Liz) plays a young woman married to a rich English planter who has come to live on his Elephant Walk plantation. An adventure film shot in the jungle of Sigiriya and around the temple of Kiri Vihara which certainly seems a bit dated today, but it was still an opportunity to discover Liz Taylor at the beginning. The one who will be, a few years later, the great Cleopatra of Hollywood. Three years later, it is the filmmaker David Lean who shoots The Bridge on the River Kwai near the village of Kitulgala and along the river Kelani. Several parts of the city of Kandy, as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens, are also featured in this war film that has become a cult favorite, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden. In 1958, he won seven Oscars, including the very rare triplet of best film-director-actor. Finally, we cannot be complete without mentioning the second installment of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones series, which chose the city of Kandy and the Hantana tea plantation for the filming of The Temple of Doom, with Harrison Ford reprising the role of the adventurous archaeologist with the iconic whip and hat. The fictional village of Mayapore will be built from scratch on the grounds of what is now the Ceylon Tea Museum in the region, while the famous rope bridge is suspended in the gorge below Victoria Dam, north of Kandy. The cursed temple does not really exist in Sri Lanka, at the risk of disappointing the fans of the film. However, if you are interested in this activity, you can climb on the back of elephants like Indy at the Pinnawala Elephanage, a reserve where more than sixty pachyderms are still protected today.
In Colombo and elsewhere, rooms full of history
If the first cinemas of the island have been destroyed in the 2000s or converted as places of entertainment, as is the case of the Elphinstone Theatre, many cinemas are in activity in Sri Lanka, some of which will soon celebrate their centenary. This is the case of the Empire Cinema or the Regal Cinema, operational since the 1930's, even if other theaters in Galle or Kandy compete in age with them. More recent but nevertheless vintage, the modern architecture of the Liberty Cinema, built in 1955, will not leave you indifferent. Since then, multiplexes have also invaded the country's major cities to meet the growing demands of the public. In Colombo, the PVR Lanka, a complex of a large Indian chain of cinemas opened in 2019, welcomes you for example in state-of-the-art rooms, leather seats and integrated tables for your VIP sessions. In Kandy, it is the KCC Cineplex that welcomes you, while in Galle, it is the Queens that will allow you to enjoy the latest Hollywood and Bollywood releases. Good news for the non Tamil or Sinhala speaking movie lovers, a good part of the international films are shown in their original version. Why not take a break before continuing your exploration of this island full of treasures?
