Meet Bala, who has recently been accepted as a refugee to Australia.

Like in other countries where a violent guerrilla group fought the government, the situation for Sri Lankan refugees is complicated. Not least because the facts of the war they are fleeing from have not been agreed upon by the Sri Lankan government – particularly its final stages, in early 2009. 

But another complication is their relationship with the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam, or the Tamil Tigers as they were commonly known. Bala was raised in an area that was controlled by the LTTE. He would have known no other world. Many times, they would have provided him with protection. At other times, they also brought danger into his life – as this video shows.

What follows is a brief insight into Bala’s story, told from his own perspective. 

Director and Interviewer: Selvan Raja
Director of Photography and Editor: Dinesh Raveendran
Sound: Sri Sivakurunathan
Producer: Shakthi Sivanathan
Mentors: Shakthi Sivanathan and Mark Taylor
Thanks: Kerry Stirling and Good Grief

Background
One of CuriousWorks’ 2011 community projects has been with a group of recent Sri Lankan refugees. Half the group have been learning classical Indian dance; the other half film and new media skills. The final outcome, only just completed, is a short classical Indian dance film, based on a narrative the groups devised in class. This film will be projected onto Parramatta River for  The Other Journey at this year’s Parramasala.

But before that final work, the film group also made some other videos. Their first one was this short interview with a friend of theirs, Bala. 

Watch this space to see more in-depth stories in dance and film from this new group of Sri Lankan – Australian artists! 

To whet your appetite, here are some production stills from the classical Indian dance film shoot.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.