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 such as Melani, Buwanaka and Jeana, whose political awakening unfolds in real time as they organise demonstrations, face arrest, and confront a political system built to endure. Through their experiences, the film looks beyond the immediacy of the uprising to its aftermath. It asks what remains when movements fade, how moments of democratic possibility are remembered, and how histories of violence and impunity continue to shape the present.

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 artist and filmmaker whose work explores memory, conflict, and the afterlives of political violence through film and installation. His projects have been presented internationally across galleries, festivals, broadcasters, and academic contexts, including The Tent (2019), a two-channel installation commissioned by the British Council and Arts Council England, and Possible Landscapes (2025), developed in collaboration with Cornell University and the University of Cambridge and premiered at BlackStar Film Festival. Working between documentary, moving image, and contemporary art, his practice examines how histories of conflict continue to shape people, landscapes, and public memory. His films have appeared on the BBC, Guardian Documentaries, and The New Yorker, and include Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife (2022), shortlisted for Best Documentary at the DIG Investigative Film Awards.

Producer/editor

Hiran Balasuriya is a British-Sri Lankan filmmaker based in London with experience across production, editing and directing, having worked with leading companies including the BBC and Kontent Films. His work spans award-winning documentaries and restorations, from The Joyous Farmer and Tell Spring Not to Come This Year to restoration projects involving films by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean-Luc Godard. In New York, he worked with ABKCO Films on the restored releases of Fando y Lis, El Topo and The Holy Mountain, as well as the 50th anniversary restoration of Sympathy for the Devil. In 2021, he edited Flowstate/North Brooklyn Artists, which won a New York Emmy® for Best Arts Entertainment Series. Most recently, he edited and produced The Book of Harth, which won top documentary prizes at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the inaugural SmodCastle Film Festival.

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