Machan (2008 film)
| Machan | |
|---|---|
Machan theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Uberto Pasolini |
| Produced by | Uberto Pasolini Conchita Airoldi Henning Molfenter Prassanna Vithanage |
| Written by | Ruwanthie De Chickera Uberto Pasolini |
| Starring | Dharmapriya Dias Gihan De Chickera Dharshan Dharmaraj Namal Jayasinghe Sujeewa Priyalal Mahendra Perera |
| Music by |
Lakshman Joseph De Saram Stephen Warbeck |
| Cinematography | Stefano Falivene |
| Edited by | Masahiro Hirakubo |
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Production
company |
Redgrave Films
RAI Cinema Baselberg Films Shakthi Films |
| Distributed by |
UGC Yume Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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109 minutes |
| Language | Sinhala English subtitles |
| Budget | €5,000,000 |
Machan is a 2008 Sri Lankan comedy film written, directed, and produced by Uberto Pasolini as his directorial debut about the fictional Sri Lankan National Handball Team that vanished in 2004.
Based upon a true story, the film was shot on locations in Sri Lanka and Germany. The inspiration came from the actual case of the 2004 incident, where a fake Sri Lankan national handball team tricked its way into a German tournament, lost all of their matches, and subsequently vanished. Production spent several weeks speaking with people in the less fortunate areas of Colombo and used the people met through that research to create the backgrounds of the main characters. When director Uberto Pasolini heard of the incident, he stated "I fell in love with the story so much that I decided to shoot it myself". Under the working title of Handball, the film was produced and financed by Redgrave Films (UK), RAI Cinema (Italy), Babelsberg Films (Germany), and Shakthi Films (Sri Lanka), and had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2008, where it received a 10-minute standing ovation.
After the film completed its rounds of film festivals, it had commercial theatrical debut in Italy in September 2009, and was then picked up by UGC for theatrical distribution in Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, and by Yume Pictures for theatrical release in the United Kingdom October 2009 and DVD distribution April 2010.
Two friends, Manoj (Gihan De Chickera), a bartender, and Stanley (Dharmapriya Dias), a fruit vendor, wish to immigrate to the West to seek their fortune, but have difficulties getting their visa applications approved. They come across an application to a handball tournament in Bavaria, and not even knowing what the game is, they submit themselves and a group of friends as the "Sri Lanka National Handball Team". For appearance's sake, they begin minimal training and then seek travel visas from the German Embassy. Manoj leaves the group at the last moment, but the rest fly to Germany. Their plans to simply escape into the West upon arrival in Germany are thwarted by the quick appearance of the tournament organizers and an arena of fans eager to see the powers of the Sri Lanka National Handball Team.
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Wikipedia