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Real and kicking

Producer Uberto Pasolini

Uberto Pasolini looked surprised at being surrounded by eager viewers after his “Machan” (Sri Lanka, 2008) at the Chennai International Film Festival. “In Thiruvananthapuram they mobbed me like I was Sophia Lauren,” he said with an a (be) mused smile. It was the audience choice for Best Film at the Kerala Fest this year. “Machan” is still drawing packed houses in Sri Lanka in its 11th week. It evoked enthusiasm in audiences at Venice (where it won a prize), Toronto, Sao Paolo and Hamburg festivals.

This small budget Sinhalese comedy is a surprising debut film for a Milan-raised, London-based producer, best known for the huge blockbuster “Full Monty”, with its four Oscar nominatons. “Machan” (Mate) began on the day Pasolini fired 300 angry Australians from “Eucalyptus”, which collapsed because director (Jocelyn Moorhouse) and star (Russell Crowe) couldn’t see eye-to-eye. His own frustration on having spent seven months away from his children for nothing was forgotten when he saw a report in the Sydney Morning Herald about Colombo trying to unravel the mystery of a non-existent Sri Lankan Handball Team vanishing in Bavaria.

Did members get quietly assimilated in European countries? “I thought why not make a real story about real people, far away from big egos and Hollywood!”

A nephew of Luchino Visconti, Pasolini came “to this crazy business” after going through the London School of Economics and a bank job. He worked with established producers before turning producer himself with “Palookaville”, a sweet comedy about losers, inspired by Italo Calvino’s short stories, transposed to reflect recession-afflicted America in the 1980s. Pasolini admits, “I’ve been remaking the same film ever since.”

emotional frame From ‘Machan’

How did he manage to capture the Sri Lankan world as an insider?

“It is extraordinary but westerners think they can’t make a film about a non-western subject without a western character to be the conduit of the experience. I specifically avoided that.” Is that why he opted for Sinhala instead of English? “Any film that wants to speak in the voice of its characters has to speak their language.”

Pasolini and co-scriptwriter Ruwanthie Chickera (“I found her by googling!”) knew that they could not find the original team of 23 members who knew nothing of handball but hoodwinked Srilankan and German governments into believing in their team, journeyed to Bavaria, lost three disastrous games before melting without a trace. But interviewing hundreds of slum dwellers helped them understand the lure of the West, and why they aspired to go there. Except for Pasolini who decided to direct the film, his assistant and cinematographer, the entire cast and crew were Sri Lankan.

The ensemble cast ranges from street vendors to filmstar Malini Fonseka. Muses Pasolini, “People leave their families, friends, culture, language, all their emotional links, to journey into the unknown. They have little idea of where exactly England, Canada or Germany are located. Some think Japan is in the West. But they know they are unwanted. This makes their journey both tragic and heroic.”

If “Machan” impacts powerfully, it is because the comedy actually heightens the poignancy of people so desperate that they opt for displacement in order to survive. And they do it valiantly.

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