MACHAN Director: UBERTO PASOLINI GERMANY-SRI LANKA 2008 SUBTITLED COLOUR DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO 35MM 109 MIN Book cinema tickets This feel-good immigration comedy-drama makes for an unexpected directorial debut by Full Monty producer Uberto Pasolini. He was fascinated by a news story about a self-styled Sri Lankan ‘National Handball Team’ which disappeared while playing a tournament in Germany, especially in light of the revelation that handball is entirely unknown on the South Asian island. It would have been too easy to give this creative immigration scam the Full Monty treatment. Instead, Pasolini commissioned local playwright Ruwanthie De Chickera to give the story an authentically Sri Lankan flavour. Colombo slum dwellers Manoj (Gihan De Chickera) and Stanley (Dharmapriya Dias) dream of escaping to the West, but their hopes are dashed by yet another rejection of their visa applications. Then they discover an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria and submit a bogus application together with a motley collection of friends and colleagues. As the scam begins to take shape, the film develops from a Sinhalese social drama into a Western-style underdog fable complete with a rousing finale. Director: UBERTO PASOLINI GERMANY-SRI LANKA 2008 SUBTITLED COLOUR DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO 35MM 109 MIN