Antonythasan Jesuthasan

Antonythasan Jesuthasan

Jesuthasan in February 2016.
Native name அந்தோனிதாசன் யேசுதாசன்
Born 1967 (age 48–49)
Other names Shobasakthi
Occupation Author, actor
Website shobasakthi.com

Antonythasan Jesuthasan (Tamil: அந்தோனிதாசன் யேசுதாசன்; born 1967), also known by the pseudonym Shobasakthi (Tamil: ஷோபா சக்தி), is a Sri Lankan Tamil author and actor.

Early life and family

Jesuthasan was born in 1967.[1] He is originally from the village of Allaipiddy on the island of Velanaitivu in northern Sri Lanka.[1][2] Appalled by the Black July anti-Tamil riots, Jesuthasan joined the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a "helper" when he was around 15/16.[1][3][4][5] He became a full-time member of the LTTE in 1984, receiving training locally and taking on the noms de guerre "Thasan" and "Buckle".[1] A natural artist, Jesuthasan took part in the LTTE's 1985 street drama Yuddhakkaali (War Kali).[1]

Jesuthasan became disillusioned with the LTTE and left the organisation in December 1986 for which he received the customary punishment.[1] After the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed in July 1987 Jesuthasan moved to the capital Colombo.[1] However, when war broke out between the LTTE and the Indian Peace Keeping Force, Jesuthasan was arrested in Colombo for being a LTTE member.[1] He was released once the peace talks between the LTTE and the Premadasa government started.[1]

In 1988 Jesuthasan, aged 19, travelled to Hong Kong, the only place he could go to without a visa.[6] He stayed at the Chungking Mansions for six months before moving to Thailand with the help of the UNHCR, living as a refugee in a suburb of Bangkok.[3][4][6] Unable to find fake British or Canadian passports, Jesuthasan, his brother and sister obtained fake French passports from a Frenchman and travelled to France in 1993 where they were granted political asylum.[2][4][5][6]

In August 1990 the Sri Lanka Army invaded Allaipiddy as they tried to recapture Jaffna Fort.[3] Around 85 youths were rounded up by the army and never heard of again.[7][8] According to Jesuthasan amongst them were 23 of his relatives who were killed by the army and their bodies thrown into a well.[3] Jesuthasan's parents fled by boat to Madras, India in 1990 after the Sri Lanka Navy took over Allaipiddy and turned it into a naval base.[2]

Career

Jesuthasan had various low-paid jobs in Paris including stacking shelves in supermarkets, cooking, dish washing, street sweeping, hefting boxes around, construction work and working as a bellhop at Euro Disney.[2][3][6] He became involved in left-wing politics, joining the Revolutionary Communist Organization of which he was a member for four years.[6][9] He severed all connections with the LTTE and started campaigning, along with his leftist friends, against the Sri Lankan Civil War and the numerous atrocities and human rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.[9]

During his time in the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Jesuthasan's friends introduced him to literature.[9] In the late 1990s Jesuthasan started writing, under the pseudonym Shobasakthi, short stories, plays, political essays and novels about his personal experiences during the civil war.[4][6] His first novel Gorilla (2001) was based in his own experience as a child soldier in the LTTE.[6][10] Gorilla was translated into English in 2008.[6] His second novel Traitor (2003) was based on the 1983 massacre of political prisoners in Sri Lanka.[6] Traitor was translated into English in 2010.[6]

Jesuthasan's acting career started in 2011 when he wrote and starred in Sengadal (The Dead Sea), a film about Tamil fishermen struggling to make a living in the largely abandoned village of Dhanushkodi in southern India.[5][10][11] The film was initially banned in India after the Chennai Regional Censor Board refused to rate the film.[5][12] After a legal battle the film was given an "Adult" rating by the censor.[13]

Jesuthasan starred in Dheepan, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, in 2015.[14][15] The film tells the story of Dheepan (Jesuthasan), a former LTTE member, who claims political asylum in France by finding a woman and girl to pose as his wife and daughter.[16][17] According to Jesuthasan the film was 50% autobiographical.[4][6][18]

Despite the civil war having ended in May 2009 with the military defeat of the LTTE, Jesuthasan does not feel it's safe for him to return to Sri Lanka because of the continuing "armed attacks against minorities" and unknown fate of LTTE members taken prisoner by the Sri Lankan military.[4][19]

When Jesuthasan traveled to Canada for the Toronto International Film Festival's screening of Dheepan, he was questioned about his past with the Tamil Tigers.[20] He was allowed to attend the festival, but he said the authorities kept his travel document at the airport, handing it back only when he left.[21]

Works

Filmography

Year Title Role
2011 Sengadal Sivanandhan
2015 Dheepan Dheepan

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (6 June 2015). "Cannes award-winning 'Dheepan' arouses much interest in Sri Lanka". Daily FT.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ravindran, Shruti (13 August 2011). "The Near Distance". OPEN (magazine).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "No Man's Land". Elle (India). May 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cole, Deborah (25 May 2015). "Cannes winner stars Sri Lankan former child soldier". France 24. Agence France-Presse.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Aftab, Kaleem (25 May 2015). "Dheepan, film review: Palme d'Or prize goes to radical and astonishing film that turns conventional thinking about immigrants on its head". The Independent.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tsui, Clarence (25 May 2015). "Hong Kong was refuge for star of Cannes Palme d'Or winner Dheepan". South China Morning Post.
  7. ↑ Vella, Danielle (30 May 2006). "Parish priest urges respect for civilian lives". AsiaNews.
  8. ↑ Akkara, Anto (23 August 2006). "Sri Lankan priest, companion disappear amid fighting". Catholic News Service.
  9. 1 2 3 Raote, Rrishi (30 March 2008). "Buried in a shallow grave". Business Standard.
  10. 1 2 Ganeshananthan, V. V. (22 July 2013). "Best Untranslated Writers: Shobasakthi". Granta.
  11. ↑ "Sengadal to put spotlight on Tamil fishermen". The Indian Express. Press Trust of India. 16 December 2011.
  12. ↑ "Sengadal: censor's discomfort". Tamil Guardian. 12 January 2011.
  13. ↑ Velayanikal, Malavika (6 November 2011). "Leena Manimekalai: Broke but not broken". Daily News and Analysis.
  14. ↑ Shoard, Catherine (24 May 2015). "Jacques Audiard hopes Dheepan's Cannes win will help Europe's migrants". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ "French immigrant drama 'Dheepan' wins Palme d'Or". Deutsche Welle. 24 May 2015.
  16. ↑ Bhaskaran, Gautaman (22 May 2015). "Cannes 2015: Dheepan, a riveting take on the life of former Tamil Tiger". Hindustan Times.
  17. ↑ Sexton, David (21 May 2015). "Dheepan, Cannes Film Festival, review: Intense thriller goes to heart of immigrant crisis". London Evening Standard.
  18. ↑ "Lanka welcomes Cannes award for refugee movie". Gulf Times. Agence France-Presse. 26 May 2015.
  19. ↑ Chakrabarti, Sujata (14 May 2010). "I was a writer and dramatist even as a militant: Shobasakthi". Daily News and Analysis.
  20. ↑ Donadio, Rachel (2016-04-20). "For Its Star, 'Dheepan' Was the Role of His Lifetime". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
  21. ↑ Donadio, Rachel (2016-04-20). "For Its Star, 'Dheepan' Was the Role of His Lifetime". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
  22. ↑ "கொரில்லா". Google Books.
  23. ↑ "Can̲atarumapōtin̲i". Google Books.
  24. ↑ "கறுப்பு". Google Books.
  25. ↑ "Tēcatturōki". Google Books.
  26. ↑ "M". Google Books.
  27. ↑ "வேலைக்காரிகளின் புத்தகம்". Google Books.
  28. ↑ "Traitor". Google Books.
  29. ↑ "கண்டி வீரன்". Google Books.
  30. ↑ "The MGR Murder Trail". Google Books.

External links

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