Republic of Amnesia

(2025, 78 mins, Sri Lanka / United Kingdom, HD video with sound)

Republic of Amnesia examines Sri Lanka’s 2022 people’s protest movement, the Aragalaya (“The Struggle”). Centring on three young activists at the heart of the movement, the film follows a political coming-of-age as ordinary citizens briefly overturned an entrenched authoritarian order, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

In the months that followed, they encountered the return of a militarised state, navigating an increasingly Kafkaesque landscape of surveillance, intimidation, criminalisation and legal uncertainty.

Employing long-form observational filmmaking alongside found footage and the digital vernaculars that animated the uprising, including TikTok clips, livestreams and memes, the film traces how ideals of non-violence and inclusivity were forged on the streets before being fractured by renewed repression and a broader culture of civic amnesia.