A book written on glass, a spy disguised as a child, and grief you can't outrun.
This European thriller, set in Sri Lanka, attempts to expound upon the philosophical implications of life, death, and memory. JB, an academic famed for his studies of oriental culture and alcoholic who has never recovered from his wife's suicide, returns to Sri Lanka to translate a book written on glass. It is supposed to contain Buddha's discourse upon memory. While he is there, an attractive nurse, Julia asks him to assist a young boy who wants to locate his father who is now living in a Tamil-occupied area. The Tamil terrorists will kill any trespassers. Compounding JB's conflict in deciding to go is that his former home where he lived with his wife is in that area. Unbeknownst to him, the boy is really a Tamil spy.
Cinematography
Sri Lankan landscapes as beautiful and menacing as memory itself.
Acting
Balmer's haunted eyes say everything his translations cannot.
Director
Patricia Plattner
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Patricia Plattner was a documentarian before this, her only fiction feature—explaining the ethnographic patience.
Shot during actual Sri Lankan civil war; Gamini Fonseka was a real-life political activist, lending his police chief role bitter irony.
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