Educational Media Reviews Online

Narrated by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje (who was born in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon), this film is a tribute to the life of the late Sri Lankan humanitarian Rajani Thiranagama. Rajani was shot and killed in 1989 while riding her bicycle in northern Sri Lanka. Rajani, 35, a Tamil, was a dedicated human rights activist, a mother, and a doctor and anatomy professor at the University of Jaffna. Rajani’s story is told through archival footage, reenactments, and interviews with her sisters, her children, her parents, and the Sinhalese husband from whom she was estranged.

Rajani and her older sister Nirmala were impassioned by the ethnic strife between the Tamils and the Sinhalese, the majority group in Sri Lanka. Nirmala was active in the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), a rebel group known as the Tamil Tigers. When Nirmala was arrested and imprisoned by the Sri Lankan government, Rajani moved to London and became a leading figure in the Tamil Tiger organization. Upon Rajani’s return to Sri Lanka, she taught at the University of Jaffna and founded a group called the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), through which she reported human rights atrocities on both sides of the conflict. Though Rajani broke ties with the Tamil Tigers, they are suspected as being responsible for her death.

Nirmala, who escaped prison in 1984, speaks on camera about her sister’s life and humanitarian work. Slow at times, the film leaves viewers with many questions about the political situation in Sri Lanka as well as the circumstances surrounding the Rajani’s death.