:: IFFK 2008 ::

Uberto Pasolini, the director of Machan, doesn’t speak a word of Singhalese, but was still able to make a sensitive film about a significant issue in the lives of many Sri Lankans. “It was like directing a subtitled film,” he says while acknowledging the enormous contribution of the production staff in resolving the issue. For Pasolini, the experience of making the film wasn’t much different than watching a film in a foreign language. The words may not make sense to you, but the way they’re said still conveys an emotion.

Since Pasolini’s earlier productions have also dealt with serious issues tackled in a humorous way, he knew it was possible to execute this film as well, but once he’d worked on the script, he felt compelled to make the film on his own. That is how the directorial debut of an Italian settled in England happened to be about a fake Sri Lankan handball team.

Pasolini feels that there is something gravely wrong with the current attitude of the immigration policy of the West and felt that the incident of 23 members of the Sri Lankan handball team absconding from an international tournament in Germany would be an ideal pretext for articulating his opinion.

When making a film about Sri Lanka it is impossible to ignore the 25 years of civil war, but Pasolini felt that it wasn’t possible for him to give it the kind of treatment it deserved. “I’d rather leave it to the excellent filmmakers in Sri Lanka like Prasanna Vithanage,” says Pasolini. But there are subtle references to the issue in the film.

Pasolini is of the opinion that there have been films on the migration of people as refugees and about the lives of immigrants, legal or otherwise, in the West. That is why he chose instead to focus on the lives of people who want to migrate to the West for economic reasons.

Since the details about the real team are sketchy, Pasolini got a free hand in creating the background of every character. The makers of the film spent nine months researching the issue and the lives of the people in Sri Lanka, to create the diverse bunch in the film.

Pasolini adds that several moments in his film are a tribute to the cinema he has watched and enjoyed. In a certain way, for him, all the films he has made so far have been a retelling of the Italian classic I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) by Mario Monicelli. Films including The Full Monty and his current venture use I Soliti Ignoti’s plot of a group of people collaborating on a common project. Monicelli’s humorous treatment of a serious issue resonates in Pasolini’s work. “These have been my influences,” he concludes.