There are many expressions of fear from many quarters about the possibility of another contempt of court action in Sri Lanka. Earlier the United Nations Human Rights Committee has made recommendations to the government to bring about a law in terms of the international norms and standards on the matter of contempt of court. The Human Rights Committee has commented on the abuse of this power and recommended that no repetition of the same should take place.
The Human Rights Committee made these observations when they made their decision in the case of Michael Anthony Emmanuel Fernando in Communication Number CCPR/C/83/D/1189/2003 29 April 2005. You may see this decision at http://www.alrc.net/doc/mainfile.php/un_cases/351/
The present case is about a film titled Aksharaya, produced by Asoka Handagama. The censor board (Public Performance Board of Sri Lanka) approved the film as appropriate to be shown to adult audiences. Before the film was released the Judicial Service Association, which is an association of Magistrates and District Court judges, made a request to the Minister of Cultural Affairs to ban the film on the basis that there is a scene in the film which may constitute child abuse and that the film depicts some characters in a manner that may constitute contempt of court. When there were attempts to bring criminal action on the child abuse issue the producer demonstrated that the particular scene was constructed through cinematography and not by direct, actual filming. However, the issue of contempt of court is still being pursued by some. Under those circumstances the original performance license was recalled.
The producer and two co-producers filed a fundamental rights application against the recalling of the license for the performance. As the issue of child abuse and contempt of court had been mentioned, 35 leading film makers, writers, musicians and others made an application to the Supreme Court to add their names as Intervenient Petitioners stating that the film is of a very high quality and that it does not constitute anything offensive by way of child abuse or contempt of court. The Intervenient Petitioners also mentioned that the conduct of the Judicial Services Association merits severe scrutiny as much as they, if any matter arises before them, would have to decide the matter, having prejudged the issue; in any event the said association has acted without any legal basis, with a prejudicial mind and without any respect for the judicial process and the freedom of expression; the film Aksharaya is in no way a critique of the judiciary or [about] incest but a cinematic production of the story of an innocent child.
However, when the case came up on July 31, 2007 before the Supreme Court several statements made by the Chief Justice have created the impression that the Public Performance Board of Sri Lanka needs to review its original version of the suitability for the issue of a license for performance and that further action may be instituted for contempt of court. The order of the court on that day is as follows:
Further proceedings will be held after the decision is made by the PPB.
In view of the serious implication that the film has in relation to the dignity of the Magistrate Court and the High Court by the description of certain characters by reference to their reputations the court will in due cause take a decision as to what further action should be taken in respect of the different persons who have been involved in this matter……
We give below the basic narrative of this film. It is quite evident that the film is not about any magistrates or High Court judges but about a private story of a family. This story is being seriously and profoundly told. The film represents the best traditions of fiction and cinema. In fact the film has won many international awards and was made on a grant given by the Film Academy of the French government. By no stretch of the imagination is it possible to attribute any possibility that the film will cause any form of contempt of court. Besides there is nothing to suggest any form of intention on the part of the producers to do anything other than produce a good film within the better traditions of cinematography.
The Film
The film Aksharaya consists of a series of incidents which happen to a few characters. In fact, about five characters in total among which three seem to be of more importance. There is a father, a mother and their son aged between ten and twelve. There are also the characters of a security guard in the museum and his teenage daughter.
One remarkable aspect of this film is that none of the characters are referred to by name. Nor is there any particular historical time frame within which the incidents of the narrative unfold.
The father is middle aged, with graying hair but still quite a strong man (before retirement he was a High Court judge). The wife is much younger, perhaps between 25 and 30 or perhaps a little more. The woman is very active, very expressive and quite emotionally uninhibited. The man on the other hand is very much a withdrawn character, most of the time engrossed in his own thoughts. The two no longer seem to be sharing the same world. The man is from an affluent family and possesses a very large house with a piano and other convenience. The woman, it appears has returned from a long spell abroad after having been educated by the mans parents who are in England. The girl who comes to live in the same house wants to possess the master of the house and there develops a relationship of intimacy between the two. The child is the offspring of that relationship. There is however, a secret that both the man and the woman do not know. This is revealed to the girl by the nanny in the house who is the girls mother. The secret is that she was born out of a relationship with the same man and that is why the mans parents, who were in England, have brought her up. The nanny reveals this when she becomes aware of the relationship of the older man and the girl who are in fact father and daughter. The nanny dies later. At one point the woman reveals this to the man. The man is shocked and he becomes impotent. Much of her aggressive behaviour towards him revolves around this sexual transformation.
The other important character in the film is the child. The woman who has not known any other real love or affection in life loves her son as everything in her life. She measures his weight and height every day. She bathes with him in the bathtub naked. The centre of all her life is her son.
The main incident around which their story revolves is an accident that happened to the boy as he plays with a friend in the school. His friend, childishly talks about suicide and reveals a knife that he is carrying for that purpose. They playfully fight over the knife and they develop the impression that they are being searched for by the police. They are both frightened and run to a place of hiding. They come to the very end of a building from where there is no escape. If they want to escape they must run back in the same direction in which they came. They wait, listening to the footsteps and when they hear some steps they think it is the police. By now the knife is in the hand of the boy who is the son of the two main characters of the film. As the footsteps of the on comer are very close the boys try to run back and the knife in the hand of the boy gets stuck in the on comer, who is a woman. The woman is one who is sought after by many whom she entertains in her privacy and she has many clients. Perhaps she was in the building at the time looking for some quiet corner. Her death is highly publicized on the television and newspapers.
The boy, out of fear runs away and ends up in a museum. Here he tries to play as a child with a security guards daughter and in the process the security guard takes him home as the boy had no place to go. Meanwhile the handling of the criminal case about the murder falls on the shoulders of the woman (his mother) who is the magistrate of the area. She gives orders as required by law for his arrest. She is interviewed by the media and the interviews appear on the television. In the evening having had a telephone call from the security guards house she visits the boy with her husband. After seeing the boy she pushes the husband out of the room and there is a moment when the mother and the child are alone. Later she gives money to the guard to keep the child in his house without allowing him to go out. The security guard by then knows the story of the murder. Then there are episodes of the childs life in the top storey of a skyscraper. He is alone when the security guard and his daughter leave in the morning. He sees interviews of his mother giving orders to arrest him in the television. The boy thinks that the mother does not love him anymore. Conflicts also develop between the security guard and the mother as the guard is exposed to many hardships in having to keep the boy. Besides he resents the aggressive behaviour of the mother. At times they talk roughly to each other.
One of the more powerful episodes in the film is the visit of the mother to the museum where the security guard is working. They are alone inside. The boredom of the woman is portrayed when she expresses a liking for the manly walk of the guard. The guard feeling quite insecure of his job wants the woman to leave as soon as possible. However, the woman does not leave and also begins to break artifacts by smashing them on the floor or trying to hit the guard with them. Several artifacts are broken to pieces, which even frightens the guard more because all his life earnings will not be enough to compensate for the damage. Finally the man tries to control the boisterous behaviour of the woman. He hits her, slaps her and she falls at his feet but is still aggressive. It is at that moment that he rapes her. However, that does not break their relationship. The woman finally leaves promising to pay for the damage.
She then runs to the house where her son is to visit him. The child is completely unaware of all this and is with the security guards daughter near the door trying to demonstrate to the girl how the incident of the murder happened. He has a knife in his hand which is given to him by the girl. He tries to show how he tried to run and opens the door forcefully with the knife in his hand. At that moment his mother is just there and she gets stabbed and dies of the injury.
It is within this narrative that the producer introduces many thoughts and expressions through the characters who are involved in the story. There are comments about life and also about loneliness, boredom and being imprisoned within themselves. Some events break down the erected walls, for example the rape incident which has broken open the prison within which she had been living all her life. The breaking of the artifacts seems to be symbolic of the breaking of the world view based on the past and the habits of living in the past. End of film.
The AHRC requests all the persons who have been previously concerned with the issue of contempt of court to once more take up the unresolved issue relating to this matter. Particularly that since the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has already submitted a draft of a contempt of court law to the bring pressure on the government to enact this law as soon as possible. As the UN Human Rights Committee has recommended that the similar action, as in Michael Anthony Emmanuel Fernandos case should not be repeated it is also the duty of the government to implement this recommendation.
