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Gone with the wind-bird?
By Rajpal Abeynayake
Sulang Kirillie (Wind Bird) must be one of the most sensuous yet sensitive movies that has been made by a Sri Lankan director in recent times. It is dark and forbidding but suffused with life and verve.

It is also a portrayal of one man's life in the army, even though the story revolves around the character of Rathie (Damitha Abeyrathne) who works as a garment factory hand in the free trade zone in Biyagama.

Rathie (played absolutely brilliantly by Damitha who is better known to Sri Lankan audiences from tele dramas) comes bang-up against the laws of abortion in Sri Lanka, when she is made pregnant by a soldier (Linton Semage) on leave - who it later turns out - - has a wife in his village who lives with her mother and the two children. Rathie's later forays into Shantha's thatched hut in the little hamlet, is a cinematographer's game of cat and mouse played with some skill by the director on the audience.

The movie is illuminated by the excellent use of color and light handled cleverly in a way that it makes it haunting and down to earth at the same time. Nothing is overstated in this effort, and nothing is understated - - and it is an accolade to those who created the Film Corporation's grant scheme for talented new directors, under which this movie was funded.

Satyanganie is candid about her talent - -she knows she has it, and is not about to hide it under a bushel. I should have done this review long ago - but in many ways the movie was too good for a passing comment, for which reason I have kept procrastinating the job of writing this piece. But in the end there is no such thing as a considered review.

Perhaps Satyanganie's story, which is not as interesting as Rathie's perhaps, is still a tale of Sri Lankan prejudices, and our own collective pet project of paying tribute to the mediocre. Sulang Kirrilie is not mediocre - -which is why it has not been spoken about or being made into a cause celebre by ignorant 'dilettante' who act in cahoots with cinema slickers and hustlers of the movie world.

This is a poignant film, which uses symbolism but doesn't overdo it. Small shack, small pleasures - these are portrayed with equal power. But, the screenplay can be biting - especially at times when both Raththi and her lover get mad, alternately, with the system, and with its players, such as a three wheeler driver who refuses to bring down his fare. Sulang Kirrilie is not about the war, which is one reason why it will get less attention among the cinema world's movers and shakers.

But not being about the war, is a qualification because this is definitely not a cliche flick.

Though the film makers of the latter day have not been averse to dealing with social issues, their treatment of these have not been able to transcend their own personal ego needs of wanting to make a major glamorous statement. Name names I will not, but a good deal of movies about the war have been marked by this failing - even though not all of them. Sulang Kirillee chooses to state the condition of the free trade zone woman by paying attention to detail in their mundane deprived but certainly not entirely boring lives. The movie does not invest in glamour. It tells its tale by extraordinary good portrayal of the ordinary. Yet, if I were asked to pick one word that best describes the movie, I would pick 'sensuous' even though the film has just one scene of lovemaking. But don't get the wrong idea, the film has mixed elements and is extremely successful at many levels. Apparently Sulang Kirrrile is to be exhibited at some of the better known film festivals of the world, as well as some alternate festival venues, because Satyanganie - an avowed film buff - - knows probably where her movie is going to be appreciated. Wherever it may be appreciated, it is sad that whether it will be appreciated at home is still quite uncertain.

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