Quote:
Willie discovers in a manuscript that a treasure lies buried in a rock and that whoever is prepared to make a human sacrifice will see the rock open up and reveal its treasure. Willie locates the rock, but the victim (who must be a young girl) is nowhere to be found. Then, one day, when he least expected it, a girl stands before him, resplendent… Ironically, he falls deeply in love with her.

Quote:
A marvellously accomplished work, with a fascinating story. A man sits writing his last confession, contemplating suicide. His obsession has been to find a great treasure. Only after murdering a young girl does he realise that she is the treasure he has been seeking. This complex morality tale is a moving love story interwoven with a characteristic examination of superstition, the caste system, and the frailty of human feelings.

Nidhanaya.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 34 min
Size: 	1.02 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	738x540 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 414 kb/s
BPP: 	0.142
Audio
#1:  	Sinhala 2.0ch AAC LC @ 137 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/902D371AB6F496E/Nidhanaya.mkv

Language(s):Sinhala
Subtitles:English hardcoded

The post Lester James Peries – Nidhanaya AKA The Treasure (1972) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The young man has fallen from the sky
The lines of communication are burned
To flee the city and its tumult, get back to nature
Enter into another story
Of the legend of the prince
In the hope of a love
To hide in the hollow of the tree
Nothing magical is improbable
What happened yesterday can reoccur tomorrow

Against a palpitating backdrop of rebellion, riot and war, this strange and irresistible Sri Lankan tale winds an unpredictable path between myth and reality, war and peace, love and madness.
A half-wild young man travels in an aimless fashion from the city, where he seems to take vicarious pleasure in the mob violence sweeping through its commercial district, only to make his way willy-nilly back home, to a village on the edge of a forest in a shimmering, verdant valley where all young men his age are hiding in the woods from some unseen mortal dread.

The serene motion and exquisite compositions of director Vimukthi Jayasundara’s camera draw us along with this deeply ambiguous, mysterious protagonist in a state of wonderment and expectation, across paradisial landscapes menaced by hellish fear and imminent violence, where nevertheless an easy, humble humor and wisdom also abide. Fate, prophesy, destiny and myth wrap themselves around the realistic and contemporary reality of civil war, as we halt by two happy fishermen relating a story about a certain banished prince, hiding in the hollow of a tree, awaiting the moment of his revenge. When our protagonist follows visions of death to the edge of a nearby lake, an older man swimming there recognizes the truth in such seeming hallucinations. “Nothing’s improbable,” he notes matter-of-factly. “What happened before may happen again.”
This confident and alluring second feature from Jayasundara (The Forsaken Land, 2005) uses a bold, beautiful, mysterious blending of realism and allegory to crack open a world turned upside down.

Ahasin Wetei.2009.720p.FR-HDTV.AC3.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 21mn
Size: 	2.38 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1280x720 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	Variable
Bit rate: 	4 000 Kbps
BPP: 	
Audio
#1:  	Sinhala 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/856A834024E269B/Ahasin_Wetei.2009.720p.FR-HDTV.AC3.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/C05CB6EEBB7A92C/Ahasin_Wetei.2009.720p.FR-HDTV.AC3.eng.srt

Language(s):Sinhalese
Subtitles:French hardcoded, English

The post Vimukthi Jayasundara – Ahasin Wetei aka Between Two Worlds (2009) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Paangshu revolves around Babanorna (Nita Fernando), a launderer belonging to one of the lowest castes in Sri Lanka. Babanorna is summoned to an identification parade where she identifies Lionel as one of the paramilitary men who abducted her son during the 1988/89 insurgency. While Indika (Jagath Manuwarna), the young public prosecutor, shows little or no interest in helping Babanorna find her missing son, Namalee (Nadie Kammallaweera), the pregnant wife of the paramilitary man, seeks forgiveness from the launderer. As the long hearings in the dilapidated courthouse continue for months, shameful secrets are gradually unearthed by the defeated rebels, victorious soldiers and those who were crushed in between.

997MB | 1h 25m | 1280×720 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/CF6946FDB65A42E/Paangshu_(Visakesa_Chandraseka_2020).mkv

Language(s):Sinhalese
Subtitles:English hard subs

The post Visakesa Chandrasekaram – Paangshu AKA Earth (2020) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A rather sad tale of impossible love from first-time director Sumitra Peries, wife of famed Sri Lankan director Lester James Peries. A boy and girl fall for each other though they know this can never be. She belongs to a lower social strata than he does. The film is basically her reflections on this failed love affair.

Synopsis from Wikipedia:
Kusum witnesses Nimal leading a procession into their village. Kusum then recalls her childhood spent with friend Nimal. She is taught by the older boy. Kusum then starts boarding school with a transition to her at an older age. She gains a friend in Podmini who admires Kusum’s innocence. When Kusum visits home, she takes to helping out at the home of Nimal’s mother, Mrs. Satharasinghe. On one such visit Nimal engages Kusum in a relationship. They fall in love though Kusum starts to feel guilty due to her lower class status. Soma is chosen to be part of a beauty contest and Kusum and Nimal take the chance to spend time together. Mrs. Satharasinghe finds out about the encounter and confronts Kusum causing her to reveal her relationship with Nimal. Mrs. Satharasinghe scolds her and relieves her of her duties helping out at their home. Driven by guilt, Kusum breaks off all contact with Nimal. Soma, meanwhile, gets pregnant and is abandoned by the father. Kusum starts to take care of the child. Nimal becomes a teacher at Kusum’s school causing them to come in contact again. She tries to keep their encounters formal though at the prodding of Podmini takes some notes from him ahead of another girl. The girl bullies Kusum before Podmini comes to her rescue. Kusum then rejects Nimal’s help. The story then returns to the present with Nimal arriving at the village. Kusum reveals she failed to get into college and is now unemployed. She questions if this is her fate.

1.45GB | 1h 40m | 672×512 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/2FB4DE4BD17CD45/Gahanu_Lamai_(1978).avi

Language:Sinhala
Subtitles:English (Hardsubs)

The post Sumitra Peries – Gahanu Lamai (1978) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Anura is a loyal soldier tainted by the tedium of a service he has forgotten how to define. His only company at the remote outpost is an alcoholic soldier named Piyasiri, whom he sees in passing as they trade shifts. Anura finds that even the prankish behavior of the infrequently passing soldiers isn’t enough to offset the numbing stillness of his eternal wait anymore. Even at home, the inertia of the emotionless landscape persists, and between disconnected sexual encounters with his disinterested wife, Lata, detached conversations with his single sister, Soma, and the heart-breaking dejection of their young charge, Batti, it appears as if, in this war-torn wasteland, hope is nothing more than forgotten emotion and routine is the only nourishment for a collection of sad, starved souls.

1.98GB | 1h 48mn | 839×472 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/0B54661EF7AD289/The_Forsaken_Land_(2005)_–_Vimukthi_Jayasundara.mkv

Language(s):Sinhalese
Subtitles:English (muxed)

The post Vimukthi Jayasundara – Sulanga Enu Pinisa AKA The Forsaken Land (2005) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A Palme d’Or contender in 1957, “Rekava” is the first “real” Sri-Lankan film as distinguished from the Indian film industry. It’s the first Sri-Lankan film to be shot outdoors and the first film by legendary director Lester James Peries. “Rekava” is a visual poem on village life and local mysticism. The central narrative follows a young boy’s rise and fall as a kind-of unlikely healer. The striking finale which features the “Daha Ata Sanniya” ritual is one of the most unusual and impressively realized sequences in all of cinema.

Here’s the plot summary from Wiki:
The film starts with a tilt walker cum musician Miguel (Sesha Palihakkara) arriving in the village of Siriyalas with a monkey it performs various antics for the public. Two thieves of the village try to rob him and Sena (Somapala Dharapriya), a young boy prevents the robbery. The tilt walker , who is also a palm reader, read the boy’s palm and predict the future, said that Sena will become a famous healer and bring dignity to the village. One day, when Sena and his friend Anula (Myrtle Fernando) were playing with a Kyte, Anula suddenly loses her eyesight. The native doctor of village was unable to restore Anula’s sight but Sena touches her eyes, miraculously Anula begins to see. After that Sena got a reputation of a boy with a magical touch. Sena’s father who is a notorious money lender of the village, used his talent to earn money. His father organize a healing campaign among the villagers. One day a rich land owner brought his son for the treatment, but after that boy died. The villagers are outraged say that it is Sena’s fault. To make the situation worse the village undergoes a huge drought. Later on the peace and tranquility return to the village of Siriyala with the blessings of Sena.

1.50GB | 1h 45mn | 640×480 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/60DCC2F9163A79B/Rekava_(1956).avi
https://nitroflare.com/view/40D2E6EC0860D95/Rekava_%281956%29.srt

Language(s):Sinhala
Subtitles:English

The post Lester James Peries – Rekava (1956) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Though veteran director Dharmasena Pathiraja was noted for his leftist leanings, he said that the Marxists were “out of touch with the realties of the people, their material conditions, power, and even their powerlessness.” In his 1981 drama, Soldadu Unnahe, Pathiraja depicts the realities of four friends: a soldier, a prostitute, a pimp and an alcoholic who take refuge under a Nuga tree from the loud, warlike celebration of Sri Lankan independence. The fireworks and planes overhead give the soldier of the title flashbacks, reminding him of his experiences in World War II at the end of the British Raj. What have these four unfortunates gained from independence, and what is their future? Chosen the best film of the decade 1980-1990 by the Catholic International Cinema Organization. Awards/Festivals: Sri Lankan Presidential Awards for Best Film and Best Director; Eighth Indian International Film Festival; 16th Singapore International Film Festival 2003; Jeonju International Film Festival 2009.

375MB | 1h 17m | 640×480 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/6CC17CA2EBF5B4D/(1981)_Old_Soldier,_dir._Dharmasena_Pathiraja.mkv

Language(s):Sinhalese
Subtitles:English (hardcoded)

The post Dharmasena Pathiraja – Soldadu Unnahe AKA Old Soldier (1981) first appeared on Cinema of the World.