The Girl in the Rainwater Tree (Meena’s Story) is a short film directed by Yoshitha Perera that is a shortlisted candidate at this year’s Colombo International Women’s Film Festival under the category of “Short Films in Competition (National)”.
The project is a stop motion animation brought together by a talented team consisting of art directors Shahdia Jamaldeen and Selvachandran Surendran, Irushi Tennekoon coming in as animator and character designer, costume design by Dinushika Senevirathne, and edited by Chamika Wijamunige. The film was produced by Festival founder Anomaa Rajakaruna.
We spoke to the film’s Director Yoshitha Perera, a cinematographer and a journalist based in Colombo who won the award for “Best Cinematographer” at the Colombo International Student Film Festival (COINS) in 2017 for the short film, Dispersion of White Light which was screened at the festival.
Yoshitha also worked as the Director of Photography for The Girl in the Rainwater Tree and she shared with us her journey in putting together this incredible story.
She shared that when she presented the film proposal she wanted to do two things, one was that she wished to adapt a new medium of stop motion animation and secondly she wanted to use the medium in order to bring to light a persisting issue in our country – the matter of child marriages. And so, Meena’s Story became an animated movie based on child marriages in Sri Lanka.
Yoshitha’s production team included several of her closest colleagues; the narrative developed by Irushi Tennekoon, a professional artist and an illustrator, who is also the animator of the short film. The film is written for the screen by Yumiko Perera, a fellow journalist. The production also included a group of set designers, music composers, and video editors.
Yoshitha shared that she came across certain findings about child marriages that moved her deeply. “We found that the child marriage is a complex and persistent issue, especially in rural areas in Sri Lanka. The number of adolescents entering into early marriage is very high, and it has become a norm of sorts,” she said.
She also shared that she was part of a survey which was conducted during a period of eight months, commencing from May 2018 to December 2018, where they found that poverty and the economic hardships are the main reasons a child enters into an early or underage marriage. This survey was conducted in all ten districts in the Northern, Eastern, and North Central Provinces, and according to the findings of the survey and the experience she had by visiting these areas, she shared that they noticed that children in these areas are uneducated and illiterate.
“They are uninterested in school and education in general. The lack of ambition or a goal in life is a clear indicator that their priorities in life are varied from people from more urban backgrounds,” said Yoshitha, adding that as kids, we all have a certain dream or an ambition in life and regardless of being able to achieve our dream or not, we have an idea of what we want to become when we grow older. However, these kids growing up in these environments not only lack the motivation but she said that they seem to lack that certain spark which drives human beings towards achieving what they would want to be in life.
“In all fairness, owing to the hardships they have had to see at a very young age, it’s only natural that their priorities would differ from others their age. They have been forced to take on certain responsibilities which are too hefty for children of their age,” she added.
Yoshitha noted that this short film aims to bring the importance of a child’s freedom into light. Freedom to education, freedom of having the liberty to do what children are supposed to do, dream, let their imaginations run wild, quite literally the right to be the children that they are meant to be at that age.
Synopsis
The film is character-driven and the main protagonist named Meena is a 10-year-old girl who lives in a rural village. Regardless of living in a traditional society, Meena is a child who has a different perspective when it comes to observing society.
Meena’s family lives in acute poverty and the girl’s family believes that marriage is the sole solution in order to secure their future as well as Meena’s. On the other hand, Meena is the type of child who finds her freedom amongst nature. Just like any other 10-year-old, Meena has a vast imagination and as all children, she is filled to the brim with potential.
On the other hand, owing to pressing issues, Meena’s family believes that giving their daughter away in marriage would allow them to bear their expenses. They also believe that it’s the only way she would have a secure future. This is where the struggle begins in Yoshitha’s film.
The seven minute and 30 second short animation was screened at Goethe Institute on 1 December 2021.
