‘Funny Boy’, the Canadian coming-of-age drama film, which was directed by Deepa Mehta and is releasing later this year, will be Canada’s official entry for the International Feature Category of The 93rd Academy Awards. The film is based on the brilliant book, which has the same title, written by Sri Lankan Canadian novelist Shyam Selvadurai. The book was released in 1994 and it was awarded the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
The film will be similar to the book, which is set to focus on a young boy who is growing up in Colombo and explores his sexuality in a country (a continent rather) which disapproves of “unnatural relationships”. All this is set in a politically unrest 70s Sri Lanka, where Tamilians and Sinhalese people are undergoing a “mini Cold War” against each other, which leads up to the 1983 Colombo Riots and eventually the civil war.
The film was shot in Colombo, with Arush Nand and Brandon Ingram to portray the protagonist Arjie in childhood and his teenage years, respectively. Nimmi Harasgama, Ali Kazmi, Agam Darshi, Seema Biswas, Rehan Mudannayake and Shivantha Wijesinha is also set to feature in prominent roles in the film.The Deepa Mehta directed film was scripted by both the author, Shyam Selvadurai as well as Deepa herself.
The film will first release theatrically in Canada and selected U.S. cities and will be distributed internationally on Netflix. The film is set to premiere on December 4th on CBC Television and CBC Gem.