Flying Fish (film)
Encyclopedia
Flying Fish is a 2011 anthology film
directed by Sri Lanka
n filmmaker Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
. The film was produced with the financial support of the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)
. The film made its world premiere on January 28, 2011, as part of the Rotterdam festival's Tiger Awards Competition. The film had its North American premiere at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival
on June 7, 2011, as an entry in the New Directors' Competition. The film has been noted for its political value, beautiful cinematography, long takes, and shocking violence.
The film draws on stories from the director's life in his hometown of Trincomalee
, Sri Lanka, where the film was shot.
.
village girl falls in love with an army soldier and becomes pregnant. The couple attempts to abort the child but fails. While they are making love in the ruins of an abandoned building, her father happens to see them. While he does not confront her about what he has seen, the scene haunts him continuously. As the war intensifies, adult villagers are recruited into the civil defense force in order to protect the village border. Among these recruits is her father, who is punished and humiliated by the soldiers from her lover's platoon for not being on guard one day. Demoralized, he shoots himself inside an empty bunker. Meanwhile, the soldier and his platoon receive a transfer to a distant posting, leaving the girl in great agony. Tortured by her father's suicide and her rage at the soldier who leaves her pregnant, she flees the village.
, escalates. Stricken with extreme poverty, she becomes a curd
vendor. She also becomes involved in an affair with a young man who owns a shop in the village. Her eldest son is in his first year of high school. To support the family, the woman's eldest son works in the local fish market selling fish. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a girl at his school. He is humiliated when their relationship is revealed to the school. Meanwhile, rumors spread about his mother’s affair. One day, the boy sees his mother having sexual intercourse with her lover in a broken house. The enraged boy stabs his mother in front of his siblings later the same evening.
, where the war between the state army and the L.T.T.E. has been intensifying. The Tamil Tigers secretly conduct their propaganda lectures in schools, demanding a separate Tamil Eelam
state and justifying their war against the Sinhala-dominated southern government army. One night, the L.T.T.E. forcibly enter the Tamil girl’s house and demand a sum that the family can scarcely afford. They threaten to conscript the girl if her family fails to pay the money. On the night that her parents are supposed to pay the demanded money, the child slips away from the house just as the L.T.T.E visit them. Since the L.T.T.E. get neither the money nor the girl, they gun down her parents.
The film has also been highly praised by renowned film personalities Tony Rayns
& Ian Christie
to name some, below are exerts from there reviews,
"...The film Is scrupulously non-partisan, deeply humane, sexually candid, coolly modernist in style and almost indecently beautiful." ~Tony Rayns
~http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/2011/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=0410
In the review for the 5th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival he also stated:
"...stories filled with rage,suffering, sexual abandon and calamity, but the director films them with cool detachment...
A work of remarkable restraint. Sri Lankan Cinema has found its true modernist" ~ (Review, 5th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (Page 46-47), 2011.)
"...flying Fish offers an extraordinary journey to the heart of Sri Lankan darkness with no less vivid, sensual images. Set during the 25-year civil war that convulsed Sri Lanka, Pushpakumara’s remarkable debut draws on his own experience growing up in a remote village, where ordinary lives were degraded by the struggle between Tamil Tigers and government forces (shown as equally brutal). Recurrent close-up images of exotic insects and landscapes of startling beauty intersperse scenes of sexual exploitation, making this a far from comfortable films to watch. But there’s no denying its impassioned originality." - ~Ian Christie
~ "Sight and Sound" http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/cindi-2011.php
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
directed by Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n filmmaker Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara is a Sri Lankan film director, writer, and producer. He grew up in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 2005. In 2008, he obtained his master's degree in Mass Communications from the...
. The film was produced with the financial support of the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
. The film made its world premiere on January 28, 2011, as part of the Rotterdam festival's Tiger Awards Competition. The film had its North American premiere at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
on June 7, 2011, as an entry in the New Directors' Competition. The film has been noted for its political value, beautiful cinematography, long takes, and shocking violence.
The film draws on stories from the director's life in his hometown of Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...
, Sri Lanka, where the film was shot.
Synopsis
The film weaves together three narratives set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil WarSri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...
.
Wasana and Soldier
A SinhaleseSinhalese people
The Sinhalese are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group,forming the majority of Sri Lanka,constituting 74% of the Sri Lankan population.They number approximately 15 million worldwide.The Sinhalese identity is based on language, heritage and religion. The Sinhalese speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and the...
village girl falls in love with an army soldier and becomes pregnant. The couple attempts to abort the child but fails. While they are making love in the ruins of an abandoned building, her father happens to see them. While he does not confront her about what he has seen, the scene haunts him continuously. As the war intensifies, adult villagers are recruited into the civil defense force in order to protect the village border. Among these recruits is her father, who is punished and humiliated by the soldiers from her lover's platoon for not being on guard one day. Demoralized, he shoots himself inside an empty bunker. Meanwhile, the soldier and his platoon receive a transfer to a distant posting, leaving the girl in great agony. Tortured by her father's suicide and her rage at the soldier who leaves her pregnant, she flees the village.
Son and Mother
A recently widowed Sinhalese woman lives with her eight children in a remote village where the armed tension between the government army and the L.T.T.E., or Tamil TigersLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...
, escalates. Stricken with extreme poverty, she becomes a curd
Curd
Curds are a dairy product obtained by curdling milk with rennet or an edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then draining off the liquid portion. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to tangle into solid masses, or curds. The remaining liquid, which contains only...
vendor. She also becomes involved in an affair with a young man who owns a shop in the village. Her eldest son is in his first year of high school. To support the family, the woman's eldest son works in the local fish market selling fish. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a girl at his school. He is humiliated when their relationship is revealed to the school. Meanwhile, rumors spread about his mother’s affair. One day, the boy sees his mother having sexual intercourse with her lover in a broken house. The enraged boy stabs his mother in front of his siblings later the same evening.
Tamil Girl
A young Tamil schoolgirl experiences her first menstrual period while in a bus on her way home after school. This is revealed when an army soldier subjects her to a security check at an army controlled roadblock. Her father is a clerk and her mother is a housewife; they live in a rural village in Eastern Sri LankaEastern Province, Sri Lanka
The Eastern Province is one of the 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but they didn't have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was...
, where the war between the state army and the L.T.T.E. has been intensifying. The Tamil Tigers secretly conduct their propaganda lectures in schools, demanding a separate Tamil Eelam
Tamil Eelam
Tamil Eelam , is the name given by certain Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora to the independent state which they aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Tamil Eelam has no official status or recognition by any other state or authority...
state and justifying their war against the Sinhala-dominated southern government army. One night, the L.T.T.E. forcibly enter the Tamil girl’s house and demand a sum that the family can scarcely afford. They threaten to conscript the girl if her family fails to pay the money. On the night that her parents are supposed to pay the demanded money, the child slips away from the house just as the L.T.T.E visit them. Since the L.T.T.E. get neither the money nor the girl, they gun down her parents.
The film has also been highly praised by renowned film personalities Tony Rayns
Tony Rayns
Antony Rayns is a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. Much inspired in his youth by the films of Kenneth Anger, he wrote for the underground publication Cinema Rising before contributing to the Monthly Film Bulletin from the December 1970 issue until its demise...
& Ian Christie
Ian Christie
Ian Christie was an English jazz clarinetist best known for playing in a number of trad jazz ensembles of the 1950s....
to name some, below are exerts from there reviews,
"...The film Is scrupulously non-partisan, deeply humane, sexually candid, coolly modernist in style and almost indecently beautiful." ~Tony Rayns
Tony Rayns
Antony Rayns is a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. Much inspired in his youth by the films of Kenneth Anger, he wrote for the underground publication Cinema Rising before contributing to the Monthly Film Bulletin from the December 1970 issue until its demise...
~http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/2011/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=0410
In the review for the 5th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival he also stated:
"...stories filled with rage,suffering, sexual abandon and calamity, but the director films them with cool detachment...
A work of remarkable restraint. Sri Lankan Cinema has found its true modernist" ~ (Review, 5th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (Page 46-47), 2011.)
"...flying Fish offers an extraordinary journey to the heart of Sri Lankan darkness with no less vivid, sensual images. Set during the 25-year civil war that convulsed Sri Lanka, Pushpakumara’s remarkable debut draws on his own experience growing up in a remote village, where ordinary lives were degraded by the struggle between Tamil Tigers and government forces (shown as equally brutal). Recurrent close-up images of exotic insects and landscapes of startling beauty intersperse scenes of sexual exploitation, making this a far from comfortable films to watch. But there’s no denying its impassioned originality." - ~Ian Christie
Ian Christie
Ian Christie was an English jazz clarinetist best known for playing in a number of trad jazz ensembles of the 1950s....
~ "Sight and Sound" http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/cindi-2011.php
Awards
- Best Director Award, New Territories Competition / St.Pertersburg International Film Festival- KINOFORUM 2011
- Blue Chameleon Award, 5th CinDi IFF aka Cinema Digital International Film Festival ,Soul, South Korea
- Special Jury Mention for Red Chameleon Award, 5th CinDi IFF aka Cinema Digital International Film Festival ,Soul, South Korea
- Critic’s Choice Award, 5th New Jersey South Asian Film Festival, USA,
- Tiger Award (Nominated) / 40th International Film Festival RotterdamInternational Film Festival RotterdamThe International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
- New Directors Award (Nominated) / 37th Seattle International Film FestivalSeattle International Film FestivalThe Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
- Lino Micciche Award (Nominated) / 47th Pesaro International Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale de Nuova Cinema)
- NETPAC Award (Nominated) / 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam
- Silesian Film Award (Nominated) / Ars Independent International Film Festival 2011 Katowice
- Tokyo FILMeX IFF (Nominated) Best Film
Festivals
- 40th Rotterdam International Film Festival - the Netherlands 26th January to 6th February,2011
- 37th Seattle IFF, Seattle, USA - May 19th to June 12th,2011.
- 1st Ars International Film Festival Katowich –Poland ,June 15-19th,2011
- 47th Pesaro IFF,Italy - June 19th - 27th,2011
- Museum of Modern Art (aka MoMA) - New York,USA - July 7- 13,2011 - Under Contemporary Asian Cinema Series.
- CINEMATEK (The Belgian Royal Film archive)- Brussels , July 1- - 14,2011 for L’Age d’or prize and the Cinédécouvertes Prizes
- 2nd St.Petrsburg IFF (aka Kino Forum),St.Petrsburg,Russia - July 10th - 15th,2011.
- 5th CinDi IFF aka Cinema Digital International Film Festival ,Soul, South Korea, August 17th to 23rd,2011
- 11th Indie World Film Festival, September 01 – 29th September, 2011, Brazil.
- 30th Vancouver International Film Festival – September 29th to 14th October,2011, Canada
- London Film Festival (LBF) –October 13th – 28th,2011, London
- Hawaii International Film Festival ,October 13 to 23rd,2011 ,USA.
- 47th Chicago IFF,Chicago ,USA - October 6th - 20 th,2011 – World Cinema.
- New Jersey South Asian Film Festival, USA, October 21st to 23rd,2011.
- 52nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival, November 4th-13th 2011in New Horizon section
- 3rd i San Francisco South Asian Film Festival, November 9th-13th,2011, USA.
- 15thTallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, November 16th to 30th,2011.
- 12th TOKYO FILMeX IFF, November 19th -27th,2011 ,Tokyo, Japan.
- 34th 3continents IFF November 22 -29, 2011 Nantes France.
- 42nd International Film Festival –Goa, November 23rd – December 3rd 2011, India
External links
Interview with director
Reviews
- Susitha R. Fernando, "Flying Fish take wings to Holland", Sunday Times, January 30, 2011
- Jeffrey Wells, "Why No Fish at LAFilmFest?", Hollywood Elsewhere, June 11, 2011
- Meredith Brody, "Seattle International Film Festival Closing Weekend: Shocking Sex and Violence in Flying Fish", Thompson on Hollywood, June 11, 2011
- "Did you miss a SIFF movie? Here's a recap", Seattle Times, June 13, 2011
- David Morgan and Kevin Cassidy, "St. Petersburg Kinoforum Selects 'Best of the Best' for Competition Lineup", Hollywood Reporter, June 1, 2011
- Ronald Glasbergen, "Paradijselijk landschap met littekens", Rotterdam Vandaag & Morgen, January 30, 2011
- Ronald Glasbergen, "Verkiezing Jonge Tijgers", Rotterdam Vandaag & Morgen, February 5, 2011
- "Flying Fish (capsule summary)", The Stranger
- Jay Weissberg, "Flying Fish", Variety, February 6, 2011
- Michael Hale, "Amid War, Fierce Adversaries of the Creepy-Crawly Variety", The New York Times, July 7, 2011
- Benjamin Mercer, "Flying Fish (Igillena maluwo)", The Village Voice, July 7, 2011
Film festivals and screenings
- 2011 International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- 2011 Seattle International Film Festival (USA)
- MoMA: ContemporAsian Film Exhibition (New York City, USA)
- Ars Independent International (Katowice, Poland)
- 47th Pesaro Film Festival (Italy)
- St. Petersburg International Film Forum (Russia)
- CINEMATEK: Âge d'or / Cinédécouvertes (Brussels, Belgium)