SEMINAR

What I intended was to bring this drama to the Tamil audience. The challenge before me was to produce a drama for the Tamil audience in a language that is despised by the Tamils. I staged the play in Jaffna, Batticoloa, and Vavuniya and in Trincomalee and Ampara when fighting was still going on between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army.

I received tremendous response from the Tamil community as the drama is much closer to their experiences in war. We distributed a detailed pamphlet in Tamil on the theme of the drama so that they could understand it.” said Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, the founder of the TrikonE Culutural Foundation recalling how he started the work of the centre.

The next major programme that the Centre undertook was to conduct a film festival featuring Sinhala films in Tamil speaking areas. The film festival consisted of major works from Lester James Peiris to contemporary Sri Lankan film makers such as Asoka Handagama.

The film festival that was held in the University of Jaffna consisted of seven major works including masterpieces by Dr. Lester James Peiris, Wasantha Obeysekara, Dharmasena Pathiraja and Asoka Handagama. The festival received a good response from the youth and general public.

This was a significant step in the march towards understanding different cultures as it was the fist Sinhala film festival held at the University of Jaffna after a lapse of thirty years. The tribute should be paid to Lionel Fernando for holding the first ever Sinhala film festival at the University of Jaffna when he was the Government Agent of Jaffna.

Many of the participants who grew amidst war did know little or nothing about the Sinhala cinema or Sinhala film makers such as Dr.Lester James Peiris. The festival was also held in Vavuniya and Trincomalee. The salient factor of the festival was that it was always followed by a live-discussion with the audience.

However, it is regrettable that all those films featured at the festival belonged to Sinhala films of a bygone era, save for one or two films by contemporary Sinhala film-makers such as Asoka Handagama, Prasanna Vithanage and Dharmasena Pathiraja. Soon, the TrikonE Culutural Foundation became a household name in the North and Eastern parts of the country. The “Rituals”, a drama by Jehan Aloycious was staged at the University of Jaffna.

The Centre is able to stir a cultural discourse between Tamil intellectuals and Sinhala intellectuals in the South and continues to enrich the Sri Lankan cultural landscape.