Protests over Sri Lanka war film

By Priyath Liyanage Editor, BBC Sinhala service

A film which will probably never be seen in India or Sri Lanka opens in cinemas in London on Friday.

In the Name Of Buddha has courted controversy since it was premiered at the Oslo Film Festival in Norway last November.

Critics have called the film gruesome and harrowing

Sri Lankan officials have reacted angrily.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in London made a formal protest to the British Board of Film Certification asking for the film to be banned.

The Sri Lankan Government argued that the film was blasphemous and factually inaccurate.

When In the Name of Buddha was first shown in Oslo, Norway was heavily criticised in the Sri Lankan press as it is mediating in the peace process between the Tamil Tigers and the government.

Some see the London release, on the Buddhist holy day of Wesak, as something more than a coincidence.

The release also comes at a delicate time in the peace process, when the Tamil Tigers have suspended their participation.

Graphic violence

In the Name of Buddha tells the story of Siva, a Sri Lankan Tamil medical student who is forced to flee his home and become a refugee in Britain.

Siva appeals for help from the Tamil Tigers' leader

It depicts his family's experience at the hands of the Sri Lankan army and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) that was in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990.

The violence in the film is graphic and disturbing. Some critics called the film harrowing and gruesome.

It is also been accused of being one-sided and serving as propaganda for the Tamil Tigers.

The film shows the torture, extra-judicial killings and graphic scenes of rape suffered by Sri Lanka's Tamil community.

But atrocities committed by the Tamil Tigers are completely ignored.

The rebel leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is played by an actor who gives lengthy speeches about the freedom struggle.

The sympathetic portrayal of the rebel leader outraged the Sri Lankan authorities.

Sikh anger

This is the first ever portrayal of the brutal activities of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in a motion picture.

Siva's girlfriend - the film shows the Indian soldiers in the background later raping her

The depiction of Indian Sikh soldiers as rapists and brutal killers who had no regard for human rights caused anger among the Sikh community in the UK.

Some Sikhs, along with some Sinhala organisations, have vowed to stage protests against the London screenings.

The filmmakers say the film is dedicated to a peaceful Sri Lanka. They say they were working to enhance the dialogue for peace.

But critics argue that the film is aimed at exploiting the raw emotions felt by the Tamil community during the past two decades of civil war.

And they say the name of the film is deliberately provocative and it is naive and plays on the viewers' emotions.

Award winner

In the Name of Buddha is likely to be popular among the expatriate Tamil communities in the West.

A soldier seeks blessings from a Buddhist monk

It won two awards at film festivals in the United States.

The strength of the film lies in the controversy it has created.

This effort, by a group of young Indian film makers who do not seem to have any first-hand experience of the conflict in neighbouring Sri Lanka, is seen by critics as an effort to show the gruesome reality of a people locked in a violent conflict.

For all its weaknesses, In the Name of Buddha is, nevertheless, a powerful portrayal of the brutality of Sri Lanka's civil war.