Born in 1962, Prasanna Vithanage’s opus of six previous films has made him one of Sri Lanka’s leading filmmakers with a worldwide critical and popular reputation. He began his career in the 1980’s as a theatre director. He translated into Sinhala and directed Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man in 1986 and Dario Fo’s Rasberries and Trumpets in 1991, before setting out as a filmmaker in 1992. While also devoting serious time and effort to the education and training of young people in the art and business of filmmaking, Vithanage returned to his theatrical roots in 2006 when he combined two short plays of Dario Fo (The Virtuous Burglar and One Wore a Suit and One Wore Tails) into the hugely popular Sinhala play Horu Samaga Heluwen, which ran to nearly 150 performances islandwide. Vithanage also produced Uberto Pasolini’s Machan, the international co-production, which debuted to great applause at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival.
