The Forsaken Land (2005)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - War Drama  |   Run Time - 107 min.  |   Countries - France, Sri Lanka  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Jason Buchanan

A home-guard serviceman assigned the task of standing watch over a barren no-man's-land begins to experience an existential crisis after years of lonely service find weariness taking hold in the debut feature from writer/director Vimukthi Jayasundara. Anura (Mahendra Perera) is a loyal soldier tainted by the tedium of a service he has forgotten how to define. His only company at the remote outpost is an alcoholic soldier named Piyasiri (Hemasiri Liyanage), whom he sees in passing as they trade shifts. Anura finds that even the prankish behavior of the infrequently passing soldiers isn't enough to offset the numbing stillness of his eternal wait anymore. Even at home, the inertia of the emotionless landscape persists, and between disconnected sexual encounters with his disinterested wife, Lata (Nilupili Jayawardena), detached conversations with his single sister, Soma (Kaushalya Fernando), and the heart-breaking dejection of their young charge, Batti (Pumidika Sapurni Peiris), it appears as if, in this war-torn wasteland, hope is nothing more than forgotten emotion and routine is the only nourishment for a collection of sad, starved souls.

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Keywords

alcoholism, outpost, sister, soldier, wife