The Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, in collaboration with the National Film Corporation and the Film Heritage Foundation, is pleased to present a film festival featuring restored cinematic movies from Sri Lanka, India, and France. This Festival will be held at the National Film Corporation Cinema Hall in Colombo,on the 27th and 28th of September.
The festival is dedicated to celebrating restored cinematic classics from Sri Lanka, India and France, and to highlighting the richness of their film heritage. It also seeks to raise awareness about the urgency of conservation, restoration and diffusion of these cultural masterpieces.
Organized within the framework of the FISCH (France India Sri Lanka Cine Heritage), the festival builds on an initiative launched by the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the Embassy of France in India and the Film heritage Foundation in 2023 to restore Sumitra Peries’ landmark film, Gehenu Lamai, to train archivist and programmers, and to promote film heritage in Sri Lanka. The project also includes workshops on film restoration and archiving in both India and Sri Lanka, and now culminates in the public screening of six restored films from the three countries. All screenings will be presented in their original version with English subtitles, free of charges.
The festival will open on Saturday, September 27 at 10:00am with a masterclass by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur from the Film Heritage Foundation, followed at 1:00pm by Manthan (Shyam Benegal, India, 1976), a landmark production funded by 500,000 farmers.At 4:00pm, audiences will rediscover Maya Miriga (Nirad Mohapatra, India, 1984), before concluding the day at 6:30pm with François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups, France, 1959).
On Sunday, September 28, the program will begin at 10:00am with Hansa Vilak (Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka, 1980). At 1:00pm, audiences will enjoy the French classic Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962). The festival will close at 4:00pm with Bambaru Avith (Dharmasena Pathiraja, Sri Lanka, 1978).
