It was for this soil, and the ability to govern over it, that countless men and women would fight and die in a 26 year long armed struggle in Sri Lanka. Now the same land is being threatened by the climate emergency.
Thayakam is a character-led documentary. It follows a disillusioned environmentalist as he journeys across Sri Lanka’s arid, poorly industrialised Northern province trying to understand the many environmental and climate crises plaguing his motherland. In a fragile, war-impacted region — the site of ongoing ethnic conflict — the environmentalist becomes embroiled in a struggle for life and land.
Thayakam is a 76 minute documentary as well as a traveling exhibition; a visual ethnography examining the climate crisis alongside conflict and environmental destruction.
தாயகம் (thayakam / motherland) exhibition at the Harold Peiris Gallery, Colombo on the 16–18 January 2026
designed by Helene Leuzinger
designed by Shalini Raman
Writer / Director / Executive Producer
Cinematographer / Creative producer
Music Director
Editor
Editor
Photographer
Visual Designer
Music
Sound engineer