අනෝමාගේ ලිපියට ජූඩ් රත්නම්ගෙන් පිළිතුරු
ජූඩ් රත්නම්ගේ Demons in Paradise චිත්රපටය යාපනය චිත්රපට උළෙලේ ප්රදර්ශනය අත්හිටුවීමට කටයුතුකරනා බව පසුගියදා උළෙලේ අද්යක්ෂිකා අනෝමා රාජකරුණා විසින් ප්රකාශ කරනලදී. අනෝමාගේ එම ලිපියට පිළිතුරු ලිපියක් අද දින ජූඩ් රත්නම් විසින් මාද්යට නිකුත් කොට තිබේ. එම ලිපිය පහතින් පළවේ.
4th October 2018
Anomaa Rajakaruna
Festival Director
Jaffna International Cinema Festival
Jaffna – Sri Lanka
Dear Anomaa,
A response to your vague reply for the removal of DEMONS IN PARADISE:
It is evident from your reply dated 02nd October 2018 that you have not given a proper explanation for the removal of my film DEMONS IN PARADISE from the festival schedule and instead you chose to subvert the queries made by me by choosing to direct accusations against me personally and against the film.
First of all I want to clarify a few facts that you accuse me of.
Firstly since its premier on 24 May 2017 the film has travelled to several international film festivals across the globe and it has been shown only once to the public in the south of the country during the DERENA film festival in 2017. All the other screenings that happened in the south of the country were done only by invitation by the entities that were interested in showing the film to their select audience.
It is with much regret that I say that not a single invitation of such nature has come to me to-date to show the film from the Tamil intelligentsia, Tamil media, religious entities or the civil society representative organizations. Partly the reason for this I think was due to a deliberate ‘Black-out’ by the Tamil media to openly invite the Tamil community to debate on the film.
It surprises me that even now during such an incident in Jaffna (The so called cultural hub of the Tamils) the Tamil media until the time of writing this letter has opted to stay incognito and deafeningly silent.
As an international film festival I thought Jaffna International Film Festival would be the ideal place to start showing the film to the Tamil audience
Then when the BBC article was published alluding that I had made a statement during the interview (The statement which I never made during the interview, but was directly quoted from the film) the incognito Tamil media made a roar about this.
I reproduce here the statement I make within the context of the film:
“When the war was coming to an end, I wanted the Tigers to lose the fight. The struggle we had begun, this madness, I wanted it to end, even if my own people had to be killed”.
This I do after having established and justified the Tamil armed struggle during the first half of the film. Of course I negate it during the second half of the film according to the integral logic and laws of the film as my point of view (I needn’t reiterate that art and art objects and in this case cinema is a parallel universe with its own integral laws). It needs to be noted that I make this statement in the film not as someone outside of the Tamil community (As I’ve been accused of being a Tamil from the south), but as someone who had in my youth believed in the armed struggle.
You have also fabricated and lied that I opted to walk out of the discussion too (The suggestion for which came from the partner), whereas the truth is that a member of the festival committee communicated to the partner organization that even this was not going to be possible given the ‘pressure’ they (The Festival Committee) were under.
I also like to refute once again the claims that the film was not part of the selection and schedule. Herewith I once again attach the two contrasting images of the schedule that very clearly shows to the reader that this film was indeed part of the schedule and was later removed.
I think you and the festival committee owe a truthful answer, and you need to give forthright answers to all the queries made to you and the festival not just by me, but by all the others if we are to have ‘a sincere dialogue’ as you mention in your reply so that we can move forward.
Thanking you,
Jude Ratnam
