This 30 minute documentary is a collection of young Sri Lankan voices, speaking on their experiences of conflict and their ideas for moving forward. It is from the first phase of an ongoing project carried out by the Poverty and Conflict (PAC) programme at the Centre for Poverty Analysis.

With over 25 years of civil war coming to a close, an entire generation of young people now has the chance to experience relative peace. But what does this mean for people who have grown up only knowing war? Sri Lanka’s conflict has defined their lives, resulting in lost childhoods, disrupted education, restricted freedom, heightened insecurity, and a narrowing of aspirations.

In its first part, the project focuses on more urban youth voices, and in the second, the project will speak to youth from more rural communities in Sri Lanka. The third stage of the project will focus on the comparison between the views of these groups and reflections by the production team on the process of making these documentaries.

Through this reflexive and evolving process it is hoped that different narratives of the conflict and its impacts will be given a voice, and that they will feed into Sri Lanka’s wider social discourse following the end of the war.

“Do we really want to live like this?
Duration 30 mins.

Earlier features
Feature: Historical roots and contemporary causes of conflict in Sri Lanka
Feature: Assassination of an activist
Feature: 18th anniversary of expulsion of northern Muslims by LTTE
Feature: “Black July”, 1983

With the civil war coming to a close, an entire generation of young people now has the chance to experience relative peace. But what does this mean to young people who have grown up only knowing war? The second part of our documentary series presents perspectives of youth from more rural communities in Sri Lanka, speaking on their experiences of conflict and their ideas for moving forward.

Through these documentaries, we seek to give different narratives a voice and contribute to Sri Lanka’s post conflict social discourse.

“What an illusion we’re living in…”
Duration 30 mins.

Previous features
Feature: Do we really want to live like this?
Feature: Historical roots and contemporary causes of conflict in Sri Lanka
Feature: Assassination of an activist
Feature: 18th anniversary of expulsion of northern Muslims by LTTE
Feature: “Black July”, 1983