Prince Claus Film Grant 2004 awarded to screenplay from Sri Lanka

This year's Prince Claus Film Grant has been awarded to Vimukhti Jayasundara from Sri Lanka for his screenplay The Abandoned Land. The jury has high hopes for the screenplay, in which the 'devastating force of a war melts with the desire to live in a search for identity'. The Abandoned Land will be Vimukhiti Jayasundara's first film.

The Grant, amounting to € 15,000.00, is awarded each year to a promising project in the Cinemart during the Rotterdam Film Festival. Cinemart is the annual co-production market organized during the festival, where film makers and producers present their projects to potential financiers.

In Sri Lanka, raged by civil war for some twenty years, few films are made. The film August Sun by Prasanna Vithanage was also shown during the Rotterdam Film Festival. This is also a film that deals with the impact of civil war on private life.

Alfred Marseille