Sri Lankan director was a teenager in 1978 when he first encountered one of the most beguiling chronicles of adolescence. Sumitra Peries’s film Gehenu Lamai, about a young girl’s formative experiences, resembled an Impressionist painting in its intricacy and beauty, said Vithanage.

“Sumitra had a distinctive vision and used the cinematic language in a poetic manner,” observed Vithanage, who is among his country’s most prominent filmmakers. He was mesmerised enough by Gehenu Lamai to watch it two more times in the cinema. Decades after its release, Gehenu Lamai still casts a spell.

Peries’s Sinhala-language debut feature, which she also wrote and edited, is a masterpiece of rhythm and mood. Gehenu Lamai (Girls) will be screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24) in the section devoted to classics and restored titles.

Gehenu Lamai will be presented along with Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) by the Film Heritage Foundation, the Mumbai-based organisation dedicated to the preservation of cinema.

The Sri Lankan contingent for Gehenu Lamai will include lead actors Vasanthi Chaturani and Ajith Jinadasa. The Aranyer Din Ratri screening will be attended by, among others, lead actor Sharmila Tagore and Wes Anderson, the Hollywood director and Rayphile.

It’s an emotional moment for Film Heritage Foundation founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur – and not only because he is taking two projects to Cannes this time. The restoration of Gehenu Lamai caps...