TRUTH AS CONTRADICTION

I had ambitions of becoming an actor before I started making films. I was then involved with the theatre and with writing, translating and adapting plays. I read a lot and was influenced very strongly by the biographies of great actors and the ideas of Stanislavsky. For me the bad actors just 'behave'. The good actor tries to portray the 'truth' behind what one sees and hears on the stage or screen. I learnt about the behavior of people in general and about acting in particular, from the theatre. In a sense we are all actors in this life - 'Life's a stage ' as Shakespeare said.

I am interested in truth with the small 't' not the big 'T' of philosophy or dogma. And my search for truth always begins with myself - with trying to understand myself as a person with lots of contradictions. If I have a formula it is that truth equals contradictions and the task the is understand, not solve these contradictions in myself and others. Also, I sincerely believe that contradictions can only be shown in the creative processes if visual arts, writing, cinema, theatre - not in constitutions and religious commandments. I am an atheist and very opposed to institutionalized religions of all flavors but I believe in a kind of human 'spirituality'. I want to be a spiritual person, because seeking the truth puts one in that mould. Spirituality for me means having an inner dialogue with oneself to seek out one's contradictions and in doing this discovering your 'truth' with which you reach out to others. It is again this movement from 'inside out' that is also at the core of my idea of spirituality.

So it is that linkage of truth and contradiction that I pursue in my actors. I try to open them up for this purpose but not every actor do not 'ache'. They are too constrained by the social roles they subconsciously adopt, the behavior they think society expects of them. I try to get over this hurdle by getting to know my actor as intimately as possible, to learn about certain incidents in their lives or certain character traits. Then I get them to evoke these for a particular role. It seems to work. But as I said, not every actor is open this kind of process. For me, as a director, to be personally 'truthful' is not enough when making a film. Everyone must be "truthful'.

My Second film, Dark Night of the soul, has this 'truth as contradiction' at its core. It has not yet been released in Sri Lanka so I am unable to gauge the reaction to the way I treat the political situation of the country at the time in this film. It is clear that the political situation is only the canvas on which I paint the personal story of the guilt-ridden man. Here again my own personal dilemmas and contradiction are the starting point of whatever truth I am searching for in this film.

I was writing the script at the height of the second JVP insurgency. There was a reign of terror in the country. People were being slaughtered on every side. The famous journalist and actor Richard de Soysa, had been abducted and murdered. I did not know him very well but I attended his funeral. But many people did not attend due to fear of being photographed and identified by the CID. We were all caught up in what I can only describe as the 'crisis of the middle class' we all knew what was going on but kept silent. Those who spoke out got killed or had to go into hiding. Continue