‘In Search of Silence’ filmmaker Dar Gai finds home in India
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Resurgent Sri Lanka film biz repped in Busan by director Jayasundara
LOS ANGELES, Oct 8, (RTRS): Ukrainian filmmaker Dar Gai, whose “Namdev Bhau in Search of Silence” has its world premiere in Busan’s A Window on Asian Cinema strand, has had a fascinating passage to India. The philosophy major spent 10 years acting, directing and organizing festivals in Ukraine. While she was familiar with Western culture, the east was yet to be conquered. So she fired off resumes to schools in China, Japan and India. Soon an invitation letter arrived from the prestigious Scindia School for boys, in Gwalior, central India, to teach theatre and German.
“India became a major source of inspiration for my scripts,” said Gai. “I remember the time when I was coming up with at least three feature film ideas every day. I felt a strong sense of connection with the Indian culture. I felt at home. But who knows really, maybe I would have been shooting a Japanese film right now had my letter not reached Gwalior.”
Gai made her directorial debut with 2018’s Mumbai-set “Three and a Half”, the story of one house in three different eras. Gai and Dheer Momaya produced for Jugaad Motion Pictures, alongside Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap (“Gangs of Wasseypur”). The film won awards at Cyprus and Santa Cruz, Argentina.
“Namdev Bhau” originated during an enforced break in the “Three and a Half” schedule. “We were complaining to each about Mumbai being such a noisy city that sometimes you can’t even hear your own thoughts,” said Gai. “And suddenly the idea was born.” The film is the journey of a chauffeur in his 60s and a 12-year-old boy in search of a fabled Silent Valley.
Experiences
“During the pre-production we believed that we could pull off the shoot with a seven member crew, non-actors and it was truly one of the best learning experiences of my life,” said Momaya, whose background is making commercials and music videos. “A big chunk of it was self-funded from the advertising work, in the beginning, and then later we got some private investors to back our vision.”
Jugaad has several projects in development. Up for shoot next is Hindi-language film “Chote Kapde”. Ready to go into pre-production are “60 Meters” and “3 Days”. Telugu-language film “Eh Hero” is also in the works, as is an Indo-Italian project “Nuns”.
After Busan, “Namdev Bhau” will have its European premiere at the British Film Institute London Film Festival and its India premiere at the Mumbai Film Festival.
After more than 30 years of civil war, Sri Lanka has slowly returned to normalcy. But the work of a generation of filmmakers has been informed by the war. One of them is Vimukthi Jayasundara, whose “The Forbidden Land”, with the war as a backdrop, won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2005. His subsequent films have played Venice, Rotterdam and Locarno.
Jayasundara’s “The Question of Innocence”, one of 29 projects chosen for the Busan Asian Project Market, deals with life after war. It will follow a little girl who has the ability to foretell death, and the consequences this has in contemporary Sri Lankan society.
For Jayasundara, the process of cinematically dealing with the aftermath of the war began with the 2018 anthology film “Her. Him. The Other”, directed alongside his compatriots Prasanna Vithanage and Asoka Handagama, whose “Asandhimitta” is showing in Busan this year.
“Basically what we have experienced about the war is almost over now and now we need to understand a way to learn the lesson and apply it for our future,” Jayasundara told Variety.
“The Question of Innocence” is budgeted at $225,000 of which producer Sumudu Malagama has raised $94,000 so far for the Film Council Prods production. “This film is talking about the most common truth that we as humans would not like to accept,” said Jayasundara. “This is a common story to each and every country but we are keeping the reference with Sri Lankan lifestyle, but will be universal when you think about it.” In keeping with its universal theme, Jayasundara’s plans for the film after its festival run is to make it available on streaming platforms in order to reach a wide audience.
Though business picked up after the war and multiplexes are being built, Sri Lanka produces less than 30 features a year, 90% of which are funded by private investors. The country has 186 screens serving a population of 21 million. Jayasundara, who is also the president of the Filmmakers’ Guild of Sri Lanka and the head of the Colombo Film & Television Academy, said, “I believe what Sri Lanka lacks is a national policy on filmmaking and distribution. We have been discussing this for the last decade and I hope and believe these policies will take place soon.”
Meanwhile, the outlook is bright with international investment coming in. “Sri Lanka is a country which is developing day-by-day and the Sri Lankan film industry is also following the same steps. We are witnessing new faces; new blood, new people in the industry daily and I think it is a good startup. Loads of youngsters are attracted to filmmaking medium rather than other art forms and they are playing with the concepts and the basic rules,” said Jayasundara.
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