UPPALAVANNA

Director: Sunil Ariyaratne

Cast: Sangeetha, Malani, Chandani, Sandali Chaturika, Roshan Ravindra, Jagath Chamila, Sanath Wimalasiri, Rohana Baddege, Suminda Sirisena, Chandra Kaluarachchi, Chitra Warakagoda, Wasantha Wittachchi, Sanjeewa Upendra, Udeni Alwis, Malee Jayaweera.

Synopsis: Uppalavanna is a youthful, comely nun. She resides in a nunnery, deep in the forest in the Anuradhapura District. Only women can enter this sylvan sanctuary. Those who dwell here, lead a tranquil, disciplined and moral life. The story takes place in the days of terror, in 1989 in the very forest where the nunnery is located, young insurgents conduct a training camp. One of those insurgents arrives in Ilukpelessa, the village where the nunnery is situated to assassinate a university student, who has been identified as a traitor. The insurgent assassinates the identified university student, but in his struggle with the student the insurgent too sustains serious injuries. The wounded insurgent falls unconscious and seeks refuge in the premises of the forest nunnery, which is prohibited to males. Uppalavanna, who walks throught the forest to fetch water, accidentally comes upon this youth. It is from then on that the conflict in the story begins. Uppalavanna, the daughter of a native physician, is slightly aware of therapy. Now right in from of her, there is a dying patient. Should she heal him back to life? Or else, should she allow him to die? If not, should she put him in Police custody? These conflicting questions confront her. There is yet another reason, why Uppalavanna should pity this patient. While in lay life she was intensely in love with a young man. This young person was her dance teacher. Her parents opposed her love affair. The primary reason for their this approval was the caste of the young man. She elopes with her lover. Due to this shock and sorrow her mother dies of a hart attack. This love story ends with her father shooting the lover dead. The father goes to jail, it is the disillusionment caused by these endless troubles that led her to the order of nuns. At the end Uppalavanna decides to treat the insurgent. She performs the therapy without touching him. But her mind is shaken. The chief nun and other nuns sense her change. Meantime, the Police Officers comb the forest, looking for the assassin who killed the university student. One day when Uppalavanna went in search of her patient, he was no longer there. The villagers had taken him away and killed him. Learning that he received medication from the nunnery, the villagers refuse to offer alms to the nunnery. Accepting the guilt herself, establishing the innocence of other nuns, Uppalavanna leaves the nunnery, carrying only her alms-bowl. Let us see what happened to her.