Shades of Ash

The brutality of war is portrayed in a set of stills that fade in from the darkness with the dominating sound of a beating heart in the background. As the crimson robes of the dying sun engulfs the whole sky in its death throes, a line of trucks carrying refugees are seen among the cloud of dust. The guard post at the entry to the 'Kalu Visa Pokuna' village is seen in the distance. A man on crutches is seen looking towards the distant line of vehicles coming towards the village. The man is the village headman (gramasevaka). This village had previously been attacked by the extremists and among those dead were women, children and Buddhist monks and have all been buried in a mass grave in the village premises. The refugees that are seen coming in the trucks are those that didn't have the privilege of joining their kith and kin in the mass grave and are being re-settled in their village. This re-settlement program has been the result of a concentrated effort by the Government to restore the normal lives of the people ravished by the war.