"In Pathiraja's films, visual, narrative and ideological motifs intertwine in a complex and fascinating manner. He learnt the language of cinema from the films of Peries and others, but also recognised their socio-political limitations in a country which was heading for a period of deep turmoil. He had studied the radical activist filmmaking of Europeans such as Godard, the 'Third Cinema' of Solanas, Littin and Rocha, and South Asians like Sen and Ghatak. So he was prepared with the tools for a critical film practice when he made his first feature length film, One League of Sky in 1974. He moved away from bourgeois realism and paved the way for a socially engaged and critically humanist cinema."--Back cover.