COUNTRY:Sri Lanka YEAR: 2023 RUNTIME: 100 min
DIRECTED BY: Visakesa Chandrasekaram
LANGUAGE(S):Tamil, Sinhala
SUBTITLES: German, English
CAST: Sivakumar Lingeswaran, Kamala Sri Mohan Kumar
SCRIPT: Visakesa Chandrasekaram
PRODUCER: Visakesa Chandrasekaram
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rishi Selvam
EDITOR: Sithum Samarajeewa
SCORE: Pathmayan Sivananthan
SCREENINGS
SYNOPSIS
Rudran, on trial as a former Tamil Tiger militant, is released on bail. He returns to his village in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province with his mother, an aging fortune teller. While she spends her days in the spiritual world trying to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared for a deeply grieving village community, Rudran begins his own tireless search for his childhood sweetheart, Vaani. With a cast and crew of local Tamils who all directly experienced the civil war, SAND is a deeply authentic reflection on the post-war consciousness of Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority. Visakesa Chandrasekaram explores this perspective with masterful subtlety and precise, quiet pacing. Rudran’s journey consists of moments of silence, tenderness and contemplation, encapsulating the cost of the civil war and the weight of his failure to fight for Tamil identity in the quiet melancholy of the lead actor’s multi-layered performance.
Visakesa Chandrasekaram
Visakesa Chandrasekaram, born in Sri Lanka in 1969, is an author, lawyer, academic, artist, and filmmaker. His first film FRANGIPANI debuted in 2014 and was shown at international film festivals. He is currently working as a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo.
Finding Kamal (2009), Frangipani (2014), Earth (2018), Sand (2023)
PRODUCTION: Visakesa Chandrasekaram
WORLD SALES: Antipode Films (festivals@antipode-sales.biz)