Best movies like Bawa Duka - The Sorrow of Existence - Part I

Set in 1905 during the British colonial reign in Sri Lanka

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Bawa Duka - The Sorrow of Existence - Part I Starring Swarna Mallawarachchi, Jackson Anthony, Ravindra Randeniya, Hemasiri Liyanage, and more. If you liked Bawa Duka - The Sorrow of Existence - Part I then you may also like: The Goddess, Wassanaye Sanda, With You, Without You, I Love, Asandhimitta and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Set during the British colonial reign in Sri Lanka (1905), this powerful drama follows Peduru who descends from a line of traditional drummers, crossing over to three generations. Peduru's struggle for survival in this harsh rural hamlet exposes the repressive Buddhist institutionalization of the locals, and the hierarchical structure backed by the British colonials.

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The Goddess

Vaishnavee (The Goddess), (Sinhalese: වෛෂ්ණාවී) is a 2018 Sri Lankan Sinhala drama thriller film directed by veteran director Sumitra Peries and produced by Mano Nanayakkara. 1930’s, Sri Lanka. Partly a compelling domestic drama, and a demonic love story, the narrative follows a puppet-maker who’s set to be married to a young girl. Unfortunately, the girl elopes with her secret lover. Devastated, the grieving puppet-maker ends up carving a puppet in her likeness, which eventually comes to life, setting in motion a fantastical chain of events.

Wassanaye Sanda

Wassanaye Sanda (Moon of the Autumn) (Sinhalese: වස්සානයේ සඳ ) is a 2018 Sri Lankan Sinhala romantic drama film directed by Udayakantha Warnasuriya. It follows the story of two young lovers Mihiri & Sandesh and struggles they face.

With You, Without You

The film set, in post war Sri Lanka, brings us close to two characters who collide quite accidentally, and through them we experience the deep and seemingly unbridgeable chasm that conflict almost always creates. Will love help them cross the bridge? Or will the past continue to color the present? A man and a woman from the two ends of the thirty-year-old bloody civil war in Sri Lanka discover that the color of love is blue, and life, shades of grey.

I Love

Adarei Man (I Love) (Sinhalese: ආදරෙයි මං) is a 2018 Sri Lankan Sinhala romance film directed by Prageeth Rathnayake as his maiden direction and produced by Jagath Chandana for Romeo’s Eye Picture. It is the love tale of a rich but kind hearted boy named Pavan and his relation with a middle class girl named Malmi

Asandhimitta

A renowned filmmaker receives a mysterious call from an old college mate in the middle of the night. Asandhimitta, whom he recalls as a large and voluptuous woman, asks him to make a film based on her life. She then confesses that she was recently involved in a triple homicide of three women and is taken into custody shortly afterwards. Intrigued, the filmmaker attempts to piece together her fragmented story for a film while Asandhimitta herself awaits her fate in a local prison.

Maharaja Gemunu

Maharaja Gemunu is based on the odyssey of King Gemunu (ruler of Sri Lanka 161–137 BC) who is renowned for defeating and overthrowing King Elara, the usurping Tamil prince from the Chola Kingdom, who had invaded the Kingdom of Rajarata in 205 BC.

Paangshu

In a dilapidated rural courthouse a mother seeks justice for her son abducted by paramilitary men during the 1988/89 insurgency in Sri Lanka

Thaala

Asela, a young teacher comes to the Hatagala Elementary School situated in a remote rural village. In a short period of time, he is able to create a new educational awakening in the school with attractive, teaching methods.

Her. Him. The Other

Three Sri Lankan filmmakers renowned for their internationally acclaimed films based on the Sri Lankan civil war, join in to make one film to express their views on post-war reality.

Buddha Wild: Monk in a Hut

Buddhist monks open up about the joys and challenges of living out the precepts of the Buddha as a full-time vocation. Controversies swirling within modern monastic Buddhism are examined, from celibacy and the role of women to racism and concerns about the environment.

Village in the Jungle

Baddegama or, more correctly, Beddegama is a 1980 award winning Sinhalese language film directed by Lester James Peries that follows the lives of village people in British Colonial Sri Lanka. The film is based on the 1913 book titled as "The Village in the Jungle" by Leonard Woolf.

Pura Handa Kaluwara

Drama about a father who refuses to believe in his son's death at war.

Goal

Goal is the story of bunch of ordinary village children who challenge the impossible with the help of a teacher who refuses to see them fail.

Frangipani

Set in Sri Lanka, where old colonial laws permit the imprisonment of gay and lesbian people, 'Frangipani' tells the story of two young men and one woman entangled in a lustful – and incredibly dangerous - love triangle.

The Game

The Game (Sinhala: ද ගේම්) is a 2022 Sri Lankan Sinhala action thriller film directed by Suranga de Alwis and produced by Nishantha Weerasinghe for Sangeetha Films, and distributed by A4Movie.[1] The film stars Ranjan Ramanayake, Sriyantha Mendis and Janith Wickramage in lead roles,[2] whereas Buddhika Jayaratne, Dhananjaya Siriwardena and Wasantha Kumaravila made supportive roles.The film revolves around an extremist who started to assassinate a powerful aristocrat, where the theme loosely based on April 21 Easter Sunday Bombings occurred in Sri Lanka.

Julia

Julia, the innocent and naive young woman enjoying the bliss of youth is fascinated, like any other girl of her age, by trendy and handsome young men.Unfortunately for her, the youth who steals her heart is a cunning manipulator by the name of Dilru.With his deceptive good looks and clothes he is sure to attract women at will.And Julia is no exception.She meets Dilru and falls head over heels in love.But she is not aware that the young man is in Sri Lanka after fleeing England as he is suspected of involvement in the murder of a young girl, a Sri Lankan expatriate.Julia's whole life takes a new turn with this fateful meeting.

Lion's Pride

This is a film that showing the epic battle and struggle a group of uneducated villagers went through to get its independence back in 1948 and its discusses a "secret" what happened between 1947 November and to talk about how Sri Lanka got its independence in 1948.

Bimba Devi Alias Yashodhara

Bimba Devi alias Yashodhara is a 2018 Sri Lankan Sinhala language epic, biographical drama film written and directed by professor Sunil Ariyaratne. This historical biographical film film depicts the life of princess Yashodhara, the wife of Prince Siddhartha.

Abá

The childhood story of king Pandukabhaya (474 BC - 367 BC), the 6th monarch of Sri Lanka.

Born Wild: The Next Generation

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, National Geographic presents BORN WILD: THE NEXT GENERATION hosted by “Good Morning America’s” co-anchor Robin Roberts. The one-hour television event presents stories of hope and gives viewers a revealing look at our planet’s next generation of baby animals and their ecosystems, which face daunting environmental changes. Filmed in stunning locations around the globe such as Australia, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Sri Lanka and Kenya, National Geographic Explorers and ABC News correspondents take viewers on a journey to fascinating, breathtaking environments to witness and celebrate the diversity and splendor of charismatic baby animals, their families and habitats. The special is a worldwide celebration of our vibrant planet and the animals that inhabit it.

Flying Fish

The film weaves together three narratives set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Whispering Mountains

A virus is spreading across Sri Lanka, reportedly causing young people to commit suicide. The Disease Control Unit promises containment of this terrifying pandemic by any means necessary, citing supernatural forces that only ancient healing rituals can vanquish. As parents mourn the deaths and disappearances of their children, government henchmen prepare the bodies and the remaining living prisoners for a cleansing of disturbing proportions.

The Singing Pond

A new teacher, Uma (Anasuya Subasinghe), arrives at a school with her first appointment in a remote village near Dambulla in Sri Lanka. The school has few students, with only the principal (Lucian Bulathsinghala) and Uma as the teacher. With the help of Uma the pupils gradually start to dream of bigger things than they ever imagined. One day Upuli, a blind girl, shares her unseen dream with school friends Sukiri and Ukkun. It gradually becomes the dream throughout the village. The children and Uma encounter perils in their venture to realise this dream. The children of the school start to focus on something they have never seen before. This target gives rise to a small revolution.

Mee Haraka - මී හරකා

An illiterate and sexually frustrated young man finds himself attracted to a chic woman from the city who has come to his rural village as a school teacher.

Hansa Vilak

A married man (Nissanka) and woman (Miranda) find their lives disrupted after their affair is exposed by the police. Leaving their respective families, the two decide to live together. Shortly afterwards, Miranda secretly goes back to see her former husband. As paranoia mounts, Nissanka disintegrates psychologically to point where reality and fantasy are blurred.

This Is My Moon

Set in a Northern border village during the Sri Lankan Civil War, a Sinhalese soldier meets a Tamil girl in the battlefield. The soldier leaves the army with the girl, and goes back to his village. The arrival of the Tamil girl into this predominantly Sinhala village causes a stir within the community, where they collectively decide to send her to a refugee camp. "This is My Moon" is a controversial examination of village life, where rural myths are shattered to reveal a deeper reality of a society torn apart by war.

Dark in the White Light

A Buddhist monk on a spiritual quest. A Student trying to test his limits. An organ dealer growing his business. A surgeon who heals by day and rapes women at night.

Mille Soya

Mille Soya, is a film depicting a dangerous and hazardous journey by a young Sri Lankan group to rich Europe. They are subject to deceptions by the intermediaries, betrayals by friends, arrests while crossing the borders and even death.

A Woman in a Whirlpool

Set in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, Suddi is married to a notorious criminal in the village, Romiel. Convicted for a murder Romiel is jailed. Miserable Suddhi has to depend on Sirimewan Mudalalie, a shrewd businessman from town.

Siri Parakum

The 1st queen of the king dies in child birth, the prince survives. After the 2nd queen, gives birth to a new prince, she plots to kill the 1st prince, so that her son would get the crown after the king. A soldier senses this danger and ousts the prince to a rural village for survival. The village headman adopts the child without knowing the origin of the child. The prince gradually forgets his royalty, and grows up as a skillful and handsome farmer. After the death of the king, the soldier and religious leaders plan to bring the real prince to the crown.

Aanivaer

Aanivaer is a Tamil independent film directed by Indian Tamil film director John Mahendran. The film was shot in Sri Lanka with a story and screenplay revolving around a love story amid the ongoing Civil War in Sri Lanka.

The Sunshine

The Sunshine is about a young refugee (Armstrong) who flees from the war-torn northern Sri Lanka and embarks on a perilous journey through India, Nepal, Thailand towards an uncertain destination, leaving his childhood sweetheart on the shores that foam blood. The film looks back at the perils faced by Armstrong, a Sri Lankan Tamil, along with his epic odyssey from conflict and violence-ridden homeland, towards far corners of the world risking death, detention and deportation over the lands and seas. The Sunshine will explore the ultimate universal question how and why people get prepared to risk everything. The movie will tell the story of human struggle and not just merely make a political statement. Director Leena Manimekalai says, The Sunshine is unique and personal because it has the autobiographical touch of her friend and writer Shobasakthi.

Anjalika - අංජලීකා

A young man named Thivanka returns home to Sri Lanka from England to fall in love with a village girl named Anjalika. This proves to be problematic for Thivanka, as Anjalika is the daughter of a plantation caretaker employed by Thivanka's father. Thivanka's childhood friend, Kavya is in love with Thivanka and wants to marry him. The inevitable clash of rich and poor ends in the kidnapping and subsequent death of Anjalika.

Bahuchithawadiya

Sasitha works as the underpaid delivery man for Giftnet, an Internet based business which accepts gift orders from outside Sri Lanka. Suffocated by economic pressures and sexual frustrations, like most of his peers he sees going abroad as the only way out of his wretched existence. Fascinated with the idea of “abroad” he forms relationships with the recipients of these gifts, most of whom are rich, lonely women. When the real world starts to look too bleak, Sasitha seeks greener pastures through virtual relationships he builds on Facebook and Skype with Sri Lankan women of his own class, working abroad. But when nothing seems to go right, he grows desperate.

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