Hulk. Smash! Big Hulk smash. Smash y It is always a pleasure to return to Sri Lanka. I was attending the second International Film Festival Colombo, that was held from November 6-11. At Regal Cinema, the queues went round the block in the rain — there is such a hunger for good cinema. The festival is organised by the Directors’ Guild of Sri Lanka. So, some of the nation’s finest directors — including Festival Director Asoka Handagama, Prasanna Vithanage, Guild president Vimukthi Jayasundara, and many others — thought nothing of personally chasing films and filmmakers, tackling films stuck at Customs, and even fielding calls at 2 am about an Iranian director stuck at the airport without the right visa. It was an unpretentious, heartwarming, totally DIY film festival.

Pushpendra Singh (left) and Yashoda Wimaladharma (right). Pic/Meenakshi Shedde