BURNING BIRDS
Filmfest 2017
OT: DAVENA VIHAGUN
France, Katar, Netherlands, Sri Lanka 2016
Original version with English subtitles
(Original: Sinhala)
German Premiere
Director: Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Section: International Independents
1989, amid the chaos of the civil war in Sri Lanka: In a little village in the East of the island, Kusum's husband is kidnapped by a paramilitary militia and murdered. Now Kusum will have to provide for her eight kids and her mother-in-law by herself. She does everything she can to feed their hungry mouths and keep her eldest daughter in school.
Cast: Anoma Janadari, Samanalee Fonseka, Mahendra Perera, Chandani Senavirathne, Leonie Kotalawala
Credits
Screenplay: Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Director of Photography: Kalinga Deshapriya
Film Editor: Ajith Ramanayake, Katharina Wartena
Composer: R. Abaji, Philip David Sheppard
Sound: Aruna Priyantha Kaluarchchi, Nicolas D'halluin
Producer: Antonin Dedet, Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Production Company: Neon Productions
Co-Production Company: Sapushpa Expressions
World Sales: Film Republic
Director: Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
biography
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara was born in Eastern Sri Lanka in 1977 and moved to the capital Colombo when he was 18 to become a radio host and reporter for TV and newspapers. He majored in art and communications, and studied filmmaking at Sri Lanka's National Film Corporation. He received a scholarship to attend Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea and study film, where he graduated 2014. He screened his debut feature FLYING FISH at Rotterdam 2011, which was outlawed in Sri Lanka due to its controversial depiction of the local military.
