Butterfly Wings
Farida S On e-mail
Somaratne Dissanayake is a disciple of the great Sri Lankan filmmaker Lister James Parez. Soma's film Butterfly Wings is a beautiful story, a real story of poverty and deprivation. It is a narration of the day to day struggle of a family literally living from hand to mouth.. It is the story of a poor child who has a dream , a dream of owning a bicycle (and in a way takes one back to the all time Italian classic film The Bicycle Thief).Is it possible for Sira to make his dream come true? He thinks he can make his dream come true and so he makes several attempts to do so. Alas, he fails only to learn that destiny is all set for him with unmatched pain and the pathos all the way through.The story is also about another physically impaired child, who is Sira's sister, and is happy, as she has accepted her limitation. Towards the end of the film the distinction even in death between the rich and the poor is highlighted by the burial services. The film touches on the inadequacies of juvenile justice, where people do not even know how to talk to a child! For the poor, food and shelter take priority over children's education. These are very strong messages for the audience. During the lifetime of a poor family, child molestation, child labour and cheating are common matters and a poor woman's pride and honour are a priceless commodity and cannot be traded in the market place. The story, script and direction are good , which only prove that Soma is a dedicated and serious filmmaker. The end of the film brings to my mind an unanswered question. Poor people are neither isolated nor alone from others of their kind, then was this the only poor family in the area? Why was the film called Butterfly's Wing and not Sira's Dream or Bicycle Dream?
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