1. Pura Handa Kaluwara (1997)

Alternative title: Death On A Full Moon Day

Language: Sinhala

Director: Prasanna Vithanage

Running time: 74 mins

Starring: Joe Abeywickrama, Priyanka Samaraweera, Linton Semage

The ongoing ethnic strife in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka between the Sinhala majority in the south and the Tamil minority in the north has produced some remarkable films and Prasanna Vithanage's Pura Handa Kaluwara is perhaps the best of them. The film ran into some trouble with the government because of its harrowing portrayal of the devastation of people's lives in the conflict. Set in a Sinhala village in the north, the film's protagonist is a blind farmer whose son is fighting in the war. On the full moon day - a day supposed to be observed as a non-violent one according to Buddhist doctrines - the farmer's son's dead body arrives in the village.