Niranjani Shanmugaraja

Returning to his community after defeat in the Sri Lankan civil war, a former Tamil rebel known only as "Him" faces hostility, suspicion and bitter recriminations in Asoka Handagama's beautifully elegiac meditation on the aftermath of war. (TIFF)

Siva Sithambram (Raja Ganesan), your average next door neighbor’s mundane life takes a hilarious turn when a distant relative Pat (King Ratnam) and his family from London decide to stay with him for the duration of their trip to attend a family wedding. Riddled with financial problems, an aging, unmarried daughter and a nagging wife, expectations run sky high in anticipation of the timely arrival of his diasporan guests. But little does he know, that all is not what it seems with the Pat family.

Three of the four decades of my life have been spent in the midst of a tragic social transition in Sri Lankan history. Two militant uprisings, one by the Sinhalese and the other by the Tamils, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

After a catastrophic tsunami in 2004, many lives were changed forever. This movie portrays a heart-warming story of two such families, and the story revolves around a 2-year-old child believed to be washed away by the floods. 10 years later, the Tamil family learns about a 12-year-old Sinhalese girl who can understand Tamil and remembers incidents from her previous life. Soon they recognize the girl by a birthmark on her face. The young girl now has to choose between her biological family and the family she grew up with.

The film is based on the true story of the Great Catholic Christian Massacre of nearly 700 Christians that took place in 1544 in Mannar and the chain of events related to the same massacre that took place in 1560.

Girivassipura is a Sri Lankan Sinhala-language historical drama film written and directed by Devinda Kongahage. The film stars Pubudu Chathuranga and Niranjani Shanmugaraja in the main lead roles while Mahendra Perera, Amiththa Weerasinghe and Buddika Lokukatiya play pivotal roles.