Film: No Fire Zone - the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka

This is certainly a great week for documentaries. One about John Milius yesterday, one about Sri Lanka today, and likely one about adoption tomorrow.

So, it was back to Riverside Studios today for No Fire Zone - the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka. It's the first time I've been here since I moved to the new place - could have walked from the last one, but it was a bit far from the new one, so I took the bus. And therefore approached the Studios from the other side. After climbing all those stairs, I panted my way to the top and chose a seat.

Which would have been less easy, had I arrived later. It was packed. Of course, this was the only showing of this film. Part of their DocHouse Presents season, this is the story of the Sri Lankan government's clampdown on the Tamil Tigers, and consequent massacre of the civilian population. The director, award-winning documentarian Callum McCrae, was present and stayed for a Q+A afterwards.

It's horrifying. He warned us beforehand, and also assured us that every single fact had been checked, double-checked, and verified. In short, the Sri Lankan government chased the Tigers, a militant independence group, into an ever smaller portion of the country. They tore through the civilian population to do it. The most callous thing they did may have been the establishment of "No Fire Zones", where people could flee and be safe. Yeah, right. As their villages were flattened around them - and one of the most moving images, for me, was of a whole village trying to take shelter in a ditch they had dug, while shells were falling around them - the only thing they could do was make for these "safe zones".

Where they were sitting ducks. It became apparent that the government's real intention was to wipe out the Tamils as completely as possible. When the Red Cross came through and found a field hospital, they communicated the coordinates to both warring parties, as is procedure, to make sure that the hospital would be safe, under the terms of the Geneva Convention. In Sri Lanka, however, the hospitals had to ask the Red Cross to stop doing so, because whenever they did, the hospital would be shelled shortly after. The Sri Lankan army was guilty of the rape of female prisoners, and the execution of prisoners, including those who had surrendered. Again, violations of the Geneva Conventions. By definition, war crimes.

Ironic that the president used to be a human rights lawyer. Interesting, also, how he's gotten away scot free. As a UN representative remarked in the film, he gambled that the world would do nothing.. and he was right. And today, the same area in which tens of thousands of people were massacred is aggressively marketed at tourists. And that self-same president - who has voted himself a lifetime term of office and immunity from prosecution - will shortly host the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, which will be attended by David Cameron and Prince Charles.

The Q+A afterwards was the longest, and liveliest, I've seen, lasting nearly an hour. The poor host's attempts to wind things up, because our time was up, were scuppered first by a Tamil lady living in London who'd lost 17 family members in the genocide and couldn't be prevented from speaking, and lastly by an elderly gentleman sitting in the row in front of me, who said he was Sinhalese - the majority race in Sri Lanka, and the one in power. He accused the organisers of preventing Sinhalese from speaking, and said that while he accepted some points made in the film, others were clearly fabricated. When another Sri Lankan challenged him, I was afraid it would come to blows. The audience's applause for the second man's statement gave the host her excuse to applaud the director and wind it up.

Apparently, the film is about to receive its debut screening in India, but the director can't attend - he's been trying to get a visa since February but they're ignoring him. (Tamils aren't terribly popular there, it seems, after a number of attacks some time back.) And during a screening in Kathmandu, the place was raided.

Well, tomorrow will probably be Mercy Mercy: Adoptionens Pris - a documentary about the adoption of two Ethiopian children by a Danish couple. There's another Q+A, although I can't imagine it'll be as lively..!