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Images of Hope

In House of My Fathers, Sri Lanka’s Suba Sivakumaran comes across as a young film-maker who correctly reads the political and poetic pulse of her people and translates it to celluloid.

By Noor Javed Sadiq | May 2020


Suba Sivakumaran has emerged as a female director and a promising filmmaker in the Sri Lankan film industry. She blazed the trail by winnng the Most Promising Filmmaker Award at the Seventh Derana Film Awards 2019, for her debut feature film ‘House of My Fathers’, in the Cinema of Tomorrow category. The film is about Sri Lanka surviving its 30 years long civil war in a poetic, allegoric and symbolic way. The story and fine execution make it hard to believe that Suba Sivakumaran calls herself a novice at filmmaking. Her realistic magical narrative of storytelling and mesmerizing imagery sets ‘House of My Fathers’ apart from others who have tackled the same subject, including Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s ‘Burning Birds’ and Jude Ratnam’s documentary ‘Demons in Paradise’.

Suba Sivakumarn, born in 1981 in Sri Lanka, was an aid worker for eight years with the United Nations or, in Suba’s own words, ‘that’s my day job’. She completed her studies in political science and public policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Currently, she is serving in development and aid work through a private firm, working mainly for the British government.

In 2012, at the age of 30, Suba Shivakumaran broke free to pursue her true calling to be a filmmaker. From the age of 15, she nurtured the dream of becoming a filmmaker and be a part of the film industry but her non-filmic background and the accompanying norms made it rather impossible for her to explore the avenue. In 2012, she assisted on a short film I Too Have a Name; it’s a story of a nun and a girl in eastern Sri Lanka during the war and their relationship as the war unfolds around them. This was the time Suba Shivakumaran realized that filmmaking is what she was meant to do in life.

In her first directorial venture, House of My Fathers, Suba Sivakumaran brings out the stirring story of two warring villages, one Sinhalese and the other Tamil, in a poetic, allegorical manner. It’s not a love story because Suba believes that a story should narrate realistic imagery rather than a commercial fantasy. In the film, the Sinhalese and the Tamils living in the two warring villages face an infertility curse which makes them fearful of their legacies. They receive a message apparently, from the gods, to send a Tamil woman and a Sinhala man to the woods where they would find the secret to renew life. Hence, Asoka (Bimal Jayakody) and Ahalya (Pradeepa) start their journey through the Forest of Death accompanied by the Strange Doctor (Steve De La Zilwa).

Asoka and Ahalya face the secrets of their villages and their personal pasts but only one of them returns with ‘hope’ for the future of the villages. It is a surrealistic journey about the dreadful consequences of war and the audience gets the chance to peep into Asoka’s, Ahalya’s and the Strange Doctor’s troubled minds through their past dreadful stories.

The director has raised the bar for Sri Lankan films. From her first venture, I Too Have A Name, to House Of My Fathers, Suba’s storylines are gripping and narrate tales of common people and their lasting memories of the brutal, divisive war.

While talking about her film House of My Fathers in an interview with the Sunday Observer, Suba Shivakumaran explained: “Through my film I wanted to focus on memories, feelings and the sense of tragedy that people live with, everyday, but never think about speaking out loud about it, although those memories haunt their dreams and their sub-conscience. To narrate the story I wanted to use myths and allegories which are quite familiar in our tradition. Therefore, House of My Fathers is all about those people “who have loved and lost and perhaps knowingly or unknowingly betrayed those who they did love”.

It took five years for Suba Shivakumaran to write the masterpiece, which says a lot about how her passion and finesse is portrayed in the film. She believes that the artiste has to tell the truth about society. In her case it is clear that she didn’t choose the film, the film chose her.

Suba’s journey from an aid worker to a filmmaker is a clear depiction of the saying, “Life is not a straight path”. The uniqueness of her journey is in her attitude, dedication and eagerness to learn and be mindful of how to execute her thoughts and emotions in an intellectual, simple and realistic manner. She is a storyteller who leaves it to her viewers to define the ending of her ventures. This means every person can find his/her story in her narrative, which is magical and yet commonplace.

There is no age for realizing and pursuing what you are meant to do in life. But when you do, give your all and be humble about it - that is exactly what Suba Shivakmaran brings to the fore through her journey of becoming a filmmaker.

Sri Lankan history is rich with tales of war and Suba Shivakumaran has the vision to execute them in the most meaningful and clear form. She has received recognition from the masses and has commendable awards to her name. She has opened doors and avenues for other filmmakers, especially women, to experiment with the art of storytelling. Suba is a lady of true creativity and her stories are a captivating narrative of how the people feel about war. They are not about right and wrong. Her narrative in House of My Fathers represents voices of the people. Surely, there are many more stories that need to be narrated and Suba Shivakumaran will again show her magic in her future undertakings.

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