BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Sri Lanka/France, 2009, 80 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara.

There are many ways of storytelling, oral, visual, drama (both sophisticated and street). Asian storytelling combines all three and they are present in this beautiful and tantalising Sri Lankan film.

We are not just between two worlds, we find ourselves in several worlds. This is symbolised by the long opening sequence of the quiet of the mountains, then the vitality of the sea. Later, two fishermen will tell a story of a prince and his adventures, each adding to the other's detail, as they sit on rocks, waves splashing around them. The central character who comes from the mountains but is seen initially hurtling into the sea and then washed ashore, might or might not be the prince.

The film contrasts city and country. There are violent youths with bats rioting in the city, our hero there amongst them, kicking and beating, as they loot shops, smash televisions sets and throw them into the river. Comments are heard about how this is interpreted even in China.

The perhaps-prince then rescues a Chinese girl who has been raped and they are driven out of the city. The hero them makes his way home to the mountains. He meets an old man who tells him that we can be present to the past and the past can recur so that we are able to share a time travelling story that is thematically episodic rather than using any cause and effect plot narrative.

If one surrenders to the mystery, the images and the symbols (beautifully framed and photographed), then it is a cinema adventure into Sri Lankan myths and imagination.

1.The impact of the film? Its beauty? Mysterious plot and characters? Mythical background? The combination?

2.The director’s poem, the young man fallen from the sky, lines of communication burnt, fleeing the city and the tumult, the return to nature, the legend of the prince, the hope of love, hiding in the hollow of the tree, nothing magical being improbable, what happened yesterday may happen again tomorrow?

3.The visual beauty and the wide screen photography, the framing? The opening mountain shots? The transition to the sea? The vigour of the action in the city? Driving through the roads? The countryside, the lake, the mountains? The telling of the story on the rocks in the sea? The visualising of the story? The transition from present to the past, the van going into the lake? The old man swimming? The fortune teller? Life in the mountains, the little boy, the village, the sister-in-law – and the hero moving from one world to another? The gathering of the men warriors, the final attack by the women warriors on horseback? The musical score?

4.The background of the destruction of communications, city life, the young man and their batons, the violence, the smashing of the television sets, the litter in the streets, the cars and the vans, the hero and his kicking the man in the Mickey Mouse suit? The background of the television sets floating in the river? The news item and the repercussions for Asia on this kind of destruction?

5.The young man, fleeing the city, the van, the young Asian girl, the background of her being raped? Into the countryside, with the driver, the attack, the hurting of the young man’s eye, his going on alone?

6.The two fishermen, telling the legend of the prince, his background, growing up, his hiding in the tree?

7.The repercussions of this legend, the hero of the film and his becoming this prince? Moving in and out of this scenario?

8.His being rescued, in the bus, being offered the food, getting off with the old woman and her granddaughter? Trying to find his home? Seeing the van go into the lake - his running down, the driver swimming, the explanation that it had happened in the past? Could happen again? The fortune teller passing through?

9.Magic, myths, oral stories and moving from one story to another, the lack of cause or connection?

10.Moving from time to time? Past and future? Repetition?

11.The sister-in-law, the young man and his disdain of his brother? His advances towards the sister-in-law? Her healing his eye with the milk? His moving in and out of time? His being naked and running on the mountain? Returning to the present?

12.The gathering of the men, the men being in hiding because of the rebels and the military? The helicopters going overhead? Their running into the water, the arrival of the Amazon types on horseback, the slaughter? The young man’s survival?

13.The cumulative effect of watching this kind of story, not having verbal explanations, making the connections, entering into mythologies?