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Prasanna Vithanage film festival in Netherlands
Compiled by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi for Dailynews

Dutch plaudits for Ira Madiyama Acclaimed film director Prasanna Vithanage will be in the limelight in the international film arena once again with his latest film " Ira Madiyama (August Sun) featuring in several international film Festivals Europe later this month. Ira Madiyama will be screened at the 33rd International film festival in Rotterdam which will commence on January 21. Besides, a festival exclusively featuring only Prasanna's films will be held at the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam on January 15, 16 and February 4. "It will screen three of my films namely Purahanda Kaluwara (Death on a Full Moon Day), Pawuru Walalu (The Walls Within) and Ira Madiyama," Prasanna says. He believes that this is yet another good opportunity to take Sri Lankan films to the international platform. Also, Prasanna is scheduled to deliver a lecture on "Films in Sri Lanka and fighting censorship " at a symposium on " Claiming artistic Freedom " at the literature festival Winternachten in The Hague, from January 16 to 18. Eight artistes from Asia, Africa and Latin America are sheduled to participate at this discussion.

Prasanna's lecture follows the screening of Purahanda Kaluwara. Nowadays, Prasanna is working very hard on drawing international recognition and creating a market for Sri Lankan films. He has already achieved success by selling an Italian subtitled copy of his latest film " Ira Madiyama " to the Film Society of Switzerland and the video rights to TSI, an Italian television network covering Italy and Switzerland. "It is a satisfactory achievement for us," says Prasanna stressing that more emphasis should be laid on opening new avenues and markets for local films. "We must strive to explore new markets to ensure the sustainability of the Sri Lankan film industry," Prasanna added." At the same time, we must make good films to meet international standards." Revolving around three narratives, Prasanna's Ira Madiyama focuses on different experiences of three groups of people due to circumstances beyond their control during two scorching days in August. Even though the experiences they encounter may not be directly related to the conflict, they are ordinary people thrown into the heat of war. Prasanna says the film is about the people's quest for life and about people who are struggling to hold on to their hopes and dreams while being swept away by the torrents of war.

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