REPUBLIC OF AMNESIA

Republic of Amnesia follows the rise and fall of Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya (“The Struggle”) — the youth-led protest movement that forced authoritarian president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country in 2022. At its heart are young activists like Melani, Buwanaka and Jeana, who organise marches, face arrest, and confront a political system built to endure. As they challenge a powerful dynasty, their struggle raises a deeper question: can fragile hope survive in a country built on forgetting?

As the spirit of the Aragalaya ripples across Asia, inspiring youth movements from Bangladesh to Indonesia, the film looks beyond the moment itself. It asks what remains and what is lost when a movement fades, and suggests that the struggle for democracy lies not only in institutions or leaders, but in the stories a society chooses to preserve.

REPUBLIC OF AMNESIA

(78 mins, United Kingdom 2025)

Directed by Kannan Arunasalam
Produced by Kannan Arunasalam, Hiran Balasuriya, Retold World,
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
Executive Consultant Rob Lemkin

Written by Kannan Arunasalam, Hiran Balasuriya and Matt Maria
Cinematography by Kavindu Sivaraj, Striner Adams, Riyal Riffai,
Yaseen J. Khan and Kanapathipillai Kumanan
Edited by Hiran Balasuriya
Sound recorded by Bhanu Ekanayake
Original Score by Sami El-Enany,
Original Song ‘Kulprit’, Bo Sedkid
Colour by Jeremy Hogg
Sound design and mix by Peregrine Andrews
Sound Supervisor Sami El-Enany
Graphics by Matt Maria and errortheory404

Director/Producer

Kannan Arunasalam is a British–Sri Lankan filmmaker whose practice spans documentary film, installation, and sound. His work explores memory, resistance, and the afterlives of conflict and colonialism, often grounded in long-term research and collaboration with communities shaped by these histories. Across media, his projects centre voices that have been marginalised, silenced, or erased. His film ‘Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife’ (2022) was shortlisted for Best Documentary at the DIG Investigative Film Awards. ‘The Tent’ (2019), a two-channel film installation, was presented as a solo exhibition at Yorkshire Contemporary (formerly The Tetley). His first feature documentary, ‘Possible Landscapes’ (2025) which explores intergenerational environmental experience in the Caribbean in collaboration with colleagues at Cornell University and the University of Cambridge had its world premiere at BlackStar Film Festival. ‘Republic of Amnesia’ is his second feature film.

Producer/editor

Hiran Balasuriya is a British-Sri Lankan filmmaker currently based in London, with substantial experience working for leading production companies like BBC Films in London and Kontent Films in San Francisco. Hiran has worked on many award-winning short and feature films, including 'Tell Spring Not to Come This Year', the sole feature documentary about the Afghan war from the perspective of Afghan soldiers. His directorial debut, the award-winning Sri Lankan short film 'The Joyous Farmer', has screened in festivals in America, Europe and South Asia. In New York, he has worked with ABKCO Films on the restored releases of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films 'Fando y Lis', 'El Topo' and 'The Holy Mountain', as well as the 50th anniversary restoration of Jean Luc Godard’s 'Sympathy for the Devil'. In 2021, he edited 'Flowstate/North Brooklyn Artists', which won a New York Emmy® for Best Arts Entertainment Series. His latest project to be released, which he both edited and produced, is the feature documentary 'The Book of Harth', winner of the First Prize for Documentary Features at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and Best Feature Documentary at the inaugural edition of Kevin Smith's SmodCastle Film Festival.

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