‘Lester by Lester – as told to Kumar de Silva’
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This year is a landmark year in the life of Dr. Lester James and Sumitra Peries. The Father of Sinhala Cinema turned 95 years in April this year and the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary two months later in June. The French Republic and Dr. Peries have had a long relationship which began when he took his first film ‘Rekawa’ to the Cannes Film Festival in the late 1950s. France was to later bestow on him one of its highest national honours – ‘Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters’, in June 1997.
Paying homage to the Doyen of the Sinhala cinema, the Embassy of France and the Alliance Francaise de KOTTE are honoured to host the launch of the Sinhala translation of ‘Lester by Lester – as told to Kumar de Silva’, a celebration of half a century of locally and internationally acclaimed excellence, chronicling the creativity of a lifetime of Dr. Peries.
The Sinhala translation of this unique story will be launched on Tuesday 28 October as a (belated) part of the French Spring Festival 2014 and is an invitees-only event. A Samaranayake Publication, it has been translated into Sinhala by Athula Samarakoon, Head of the Department of Fine Arts of the University of Peradeniya. Its twenty chapters are devoted to each of his twenty films, from ‘Rekawa’ (The Line of Destiny. 1956) his first, to ‘Ammawarune’ (Elegy for a Mother 2006) his last.
Media personality Kumar de Silva who closely collaborated with Dr. Peries said, “This is the very first time he chose to write about himself and his half a century film making career, in a single volume. It takes on an even greater significance and importance given the fact that Lester James Peries has now officially ‘retired’ from film making and will direct no more films”.