Movie “Munnel” by Visakesa Chandrasekaram wins Tiger Competition Special Jury Award 2023 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). “A great simple story about a young man caught between revolution and authoritarianism.”
Meanwhile, film “Whispering Mountains / Rahas Kiyana Kandu” by Jagath Manuwarna wins the NETPAC Award 2023. The NETPAC Award is given to the best Asian feature film in the programme by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema.
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Munnel
Rudran, facing trial as an ex-Tamil Tiger militant, is released on bail. He returns to his village in the North Province with his mother, an ageing soothsayer. While she spends her days in the spiritual realm, attempting to locate the whereabouts of those who have disappeared for a village community deeply bereaved, Rudran begins his own tireless search for his childhood love, Vaani.
Whispering Mountains
A virus is spreading across Sri Lanka, reportedly causing young people to commit suicide. The Disease Control Unit promises containment of this terrifying pandemic by any means necessary, citing supernatural forces that only ancient healing rituals can vanquish. As parents mourn the deaths and disappearances of their children, government henchmen prepare the bodies and the remaining living prisoners for a cleansing of disturbing proportions.
The young people of Sri Lanka are committing suicide in droves. The government blames a supernatural virus that must be cleansed by ancient ritual. Jagath Manuwarna’s debut feature is a powerfully satirical and layered reckoning with decades of civil unrest and suppression.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) offers a high quality line-up of carefully selected fiction and documentary feature films, short films and media art. The festival’s focus is on recent work by talented new filmmakers.
