(Sri Lanka, 1962) is nationally and internationally recognized as the talent of the Sri Lanka cinema. From a young age he occupied himself with theater. He translated and directed Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man and Dario Fo's Raspberries and Trumpets. In 1992 he made his first film Sisila Gini Gani (Ice on Fire),four years later followed by Anantha Rathriya (Dark night of the soul), for which he also wrote the script. In 1997 he made two films: Pawuru Walulu (Walls within) and Purahanda Kaluwara (Death on a Full Moon Day), which was initially boycotted. Vithanage won the lawsuit against the ban on showing the film and after that Purahanda Kaluwara became one of the most succesful films of Sri Lanka's film history. Vithanage's films are shown in festivals worldwide and have won many prizes. On January 15 and 16 and February 4 of this year the Tropical Institute in Amsterdam organizes a restrospective on Prasanna Vithanage. You will be able to see Purahanda Kaluwara , Pawuru Walalu and his latest film Ira Madiyama (August Sun).

(1959) studied theater sciences and attended the Rietveld art academie in Amsterdam. She researched the theatrical methods of Modern Ghanean Drama and the possibilities for theater as a communication tool in the slums of Accra. In 1989 she organised the Zwarte Sporen Festival (Black traces festival) in the Tropical Institution, about the influence of the Ghanean Annansi stories and the drum poetry in Surinam, the Antilles and the Netherlands. Since 1990 she is amongst others the compiler and co-ordinator of the CINEMA INDIA, which takes place in the theater of the Royal Institute for the Tropics. She is also responsible for the programming of two Indian film programs in the film museum of Amsterdam. She was involved in selecting a series of Indian films, recently shown by the televisionstation NPS. Marijke de Vos publishes and gives (guest) lectures on the Indian cinema. She made a selection of Dutch films for festivals in India and is a member of the selection committee of the Jan Vrijman Fund (IDFA). For three years now de Vos together with Leendert de Jong are responsible for the film programming for the Winternachten.
WIN2003