Dir: Indika Udugampola. 2014. France, Sri Lanka. 82 mins. French with English subtitles.
Set in an idyllic French village, the story zeroes in on a singer who shares her music with a Buddhist butcher and a young flirt. Probe deeper and you’ll find layers of secrets and mysteries as the tale reveals the tragic consequences of jealousy.
Why watch it ‘It’s a debut feature by a Sri Lankan filmmaker who lives in exile in France. The film is actually structured almost like a fairy tale. It’s your standard story of boy-meetsgirl, but in this case it’s girl-meets-girl, and they have a lesbian relationship. It’s in French, and it’s very contemporary, but at the same time it has that fable-like quality to it. The way the characters are framed and the story is told is like something you’d read from Hans Christian Andersen. I’ve not seen any film quite like this.’