Guest author Vyshnavee Wijekumar – a freelance journalist of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage who has written for publications including The Age, The Saturday Paper and ABC Online – writes on the historical context behind the 1977 Sri Lankan feature The Girls, screening at MIFF 2025 in a new 4K restoration on Sunday 17 August.

When Gehenu Lamai, known in English as The Girls, was released in Sri Lankan cinemas in 1978, the country was in a place of political flux: it became a republic in 1972, changing its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka; the Tamil separatist movement was gathering momentum with the founding of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 1976; and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the first woman in the world to become a non-hereditary head of government, completed her second term as prime minister from 1970 to 1977 – the country’s second most powerful position, after the presidency.

Based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Karunasena Jayalath and directed by Sumitra Peries, The Girls is a poetic depiction of social hierarchy and young love in rural Sri Lanka. Living in a small village with her parents, protagonist Kusum is a schoolgirl of humble means who falls in love with Nimal, her classmate and cousin, whose family is considerably wealthier than hers. Despite the cards society has dealt her, she has quiet aspirations to transcend her position as she moves reflectively through the banalities of day-to-day life. However, her plans are irreparably thwarted when Nimal’s mother uncovers the love affair, changing her life for the worse.

While there was no path for young women from the lower middle and working classes like Kusum to ascend to political and sociocultural influence in this time, affluent, well-educated women in Sri Lanka had more opportunities. Peries, raised in an upper-middle-class family, was one such case. Her mother came from generations of arrack distillers, and her paternal uncles were renowned socialist politicians. With her directorial debut, Peries was able to step into the spotlight after years of working as an editor on the films of her husband, Lester James Peries, known as the ‘father of Sri Lankan cinema’; she became the first Sri Lankan woman to direct a feature film and to earn the international recognition that came with it. Identifying strongly with the will of women such as Kusum, Peries continued to tell women-led Sri Lankan stories throughout her career, making a further nine feature films until her death in 2023.

All images: film stills from The Girls

In the 1970s, patriarchal expectations governed Sri Lanka, with marriage rather than paid employment seen as the chief means of providing financial stability to women. However, there was some recognition by the government at the time that the economic empowerment and labour force participation of women in rural areas was valuable to the country's growth. Bandaranaike, who had an early career in social work, was particularly focused on improving the lives of women and girls based in rural areas, establishing a precursor agency to the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs in 1975, while she also developed socialist policies such as implementing import substitution, nationalising key industries and increasing state intervention overall in the economy.

One of Bandaranaike’s signature policies was 1972’s Land Reform Act, which sought to redistribute land, empowering rural communities and increasing agricultural production. This policy significantly reduced the political power of the landowning class and largely eradicated British ownership of Sri Lankan businesses, including in the tea and rubber trade; but these changes also brought about economic stagnation and rising unemployment, and Bandaraike’s party was subsequently defeated in a landslide in the 1977 parliamentary elections.

This political backdrop is reflected in The Girls: in a conversation with Kusum, Nimal’s mum discusses a young woman whose father owns a rubber plantation as a marital prospect for Nimal; while, in another scene, public desire for socialist policies is alluded to in a debate between schoolboys, who argue that, despite the country having obtained independence from British rule in 1948, there’s no economic independence involved in “letting rich foreigners start businesses in Sri Lanka”. Absent from the film, however, are the rising racial tensions of the time between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority that had been sparked by Bandaranaike’s move to reiterate that Sinhala was the only official language in the republican constitution; instead, Peries orientates her focus around meditative depictions of rural life, class barriers and forbidden love.

Cultural hierarchies are particularly reflected in the film’s portrayal of its protagonist’s relationship with her traditional Sinhalese family. Kusum is shown as duty-bound to her parents, her culture and her religious values: when Nimal chastises his mother for refusing to accept their marriage, Kusum counsels him that their mothers know what’s best for them, as they understand the “value of money, wealth and status”.

For many, MIFF’s screening of The Girls – newly restored through the efforts of Film Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with the Lester James Peries and Sumitra Peries Foundation, and under the aegis of FISCH (France-India-Sri Lanka Cine Heritage) – will be the first opportunity to watch the film; but for those who encountered its poetic narrative on original release, it’s an exciting chance to revisit this key work of Sri Lankan cinema nearly 50 years on. One such audience member was Vineetha Wijerathna, an author, TV presenter and program producer who originally saw the film in 1978 at Chaya Cinemas in Kegalle.

Then 14 years old, Wijerathna watched The Girls in a hall filled with her peers and teachers from Kegalu Balika Vidyalaya College, where it had a profound impact on her – particularly the dialogue, scenery and music. She recalls having been taken by Kusum’s amiable demeanour, as conveyed through first-time actor Wasanthi Chathurani’s naturalistic portrayal – Wijerathna describes this characterisation as having offered “a very good message for the young generation: be loving, and show kindness and compassion through your behaviour” – and expresses hope that seeing the film again will bring back memories of her own school years.

“Gehenu Lamai was a popular novel amongst the younger generations – and the parents also – and was award-winning at the time. I read that book more than three or four times. That’s why I went to watch that film,” Wijerathna recounts.

Although some things haven’t changed as much as they should in the ensuing decades – Wijerathna notes that the demands placed on young women in some parts of Sri Lanka today aren’t overly dissimilar, and that there is an expectation of living according to one’s family background, regardless of caste or class – she describes The Girls as offering “a very good example of … society in Sri Lanka at that time”. On Sunday 17 August at Kino Cinema, she, along with the rest of the MIFF audience, will get to again encounter this still-poignant tale of unfulfilled love and ambition – a rare window into Sri Lanka’s past and reminder of the struggles that remain to be fought.

Read the MIFF 2025 program synopsis for The Girls and book tickets to its Sunday 17 August session at Kino Cinema here.