Yuganthaya is a 1983

1983 in film

-Events:*February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York*May 25 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is released. Like the previous films, it goes on to become the top grossing picture of...

 Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

n drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Lester James Peries

Lester James Peries

Sri Lankabhimanya Lester James Peries is an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan film director, screenwriter, and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1949, Peries has been involved in over 28 films, including shorts and documentaries...

; it was adapted from the novel Yuganthaya

Yuganthaya

Yuganthaya is a novel written by Sri Lankan writer Martin Wickremasinghe and first published in 1949. It is the third and last part of Wickremasinghe's trilogy that began with Gamperaliya followed by Kaliyugaya....

by Martin Wickramasinghe

Martin Wickramasinghe

Martin Wickramasinghe , MBE was a Sri Lankan novelist. His books have been translated into several langues....

, and deals with the beginning of labor unions in Sri Lanka.

For the film, Lester won Sri Lanka's Presidential Award for best director. Critical reception was mixed however, and some critics found the film not up to par with the earlier films.

Plot

Simon Kabilana (Gamini Fonseka) is a powerful ruthless capitalist who uses terror to keep his workers under control and yield high production quotas. His son Malin (Richard De Zoysa) is the complete opposite, coming back from England idolizing Marx and Lenin, causing them to clash. Malin eventually gives up his fortunes in his father's company and works toward a confrontation with his father.

External links

• Official site of Lester James Peries