Q&A with director Shaun Seneviratne to follow the screenings of Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts
Friday, October 18 at 5:00 PM at the Film Society Bourse
Saturday, October 19 at 12:00 PM at the Film Society Bourse
SHAUN SENEVIRATNE | USA, SRI LANKA | 2024 | 110 MIN | ENGLISH, SINHALA, TAMIL
With its gorgeous 16mm cinematography of Sri Lanka, captivating, lived-in lead performances, and a disarming sense of ease in direction and script, it would be easy to mistake U.S. filmmaker Shaun Seneviratne’s feature film as the victory lap of a long-storied indie film career. Yet remarkably, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts is Seneviratne’s first feature film. The (un)romantic comedy captures an interracial American couple’s anticipated reunion in the South Asian island country after a long time apart. Easygoing Ben (Sathya Sridharan) is eager to jump right back in, but things don’t go according to plan. When he arrives, Suzanne (Anastasia Olowin) seems distant, deep into her work at an NGO, and oddly sensitive to respecting the social norms of their surrogate home. The incessant sarcastic remarks and asides that Suzanne once found charming no longer make a dent in her newly sincere demeanor. The two must learn to rediscover each other on the other side of the world if they hope to rekindle their relationship. After a decade of short films using the titular characters, Seneviratne’s excellent feature-length debut is a refreshing and confident foray into dismantling rom-com conventions until only the truth remains.
Cast: Sathya Sridharan, Anastasia Olowin
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