Song of the Sun God

Product Information

This follows the joys, trials and tribulations of multiple generations of a Sri Lankan Tamil family ranging from the 1930s to the present day. It works on multiple levels.

Montserrat, Dominic (2002). Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt. Routledge. p.101. ISBN 978-0415301862. Song of the Sun God is being adapted for television by multi award-winning screenwriter Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Wuthering Heights). The Executive Producers are Claire Mundell for Synchronicity Films and Karen Radzyner for Dragonet Films. Synchronicity Films, which produced 2018 BBC/ABC thriller The Cry, is headquartered in Glasgow and has a Melbourne office headed by Ruth Underwood.Cineflix Rights has joined the project as a creative and financing partner, with first option on exclusive worldwide distribution. The project has also received development funding from Screen Australia. I was very pleased that the book was NOTHING like that. It was honest and had the true essence that can categorize it as a Sri Lankan book. Fans of Homegoing, Salt Houses and Pachinko, take note. This book is brilliant! Shankari Chandran’s Song of the Sun God is an intimate portrait of Sri Lankan life and intergenerational trauma from a Tamil perspective – an emotive and insightful read. Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé' Review: An Intimate Yet Extravagant Exploration Of Beyoncé's Latest World Tour A few months later, as Dhara stands before the mirror examining the topography of torture, a patchwork of torn, brittle and scarred flesh, the pain of an entire community and nation is truncated onto the hapless girl’s body. There is a “constellation of cigarette burns on her left breast,” repugnantly reminiscent of Sethe’s maze of scars, the ‘chokecherry tree’, in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Dhara’s constellation, too, is the burden of war and its aftermath.

Breasted, James Henry (2008). A History of the Ancient Egyptians (repr.ed.). Kessinger Publishing. p.273. ISBN 978-1436570732. The story follows the lives of Rajan and Nala, then their children and grandchildren. Nala is a woman of strength, who fiercely loves her children and will do anything to protect them, even if this includes lies and manipulation. Rajan is a doctor and a man of integrity but few words. His advice to his granddaughter typifies his life ethos. ‘You must do the right thing, Smrithi, whether you want to or not—and you must do it to the best of your ability. That’s all that is asked of us, even though sometimes it seems an impossible task.’ Before turning to fiction, Shankari worked in the social justice field for a decade in London where she was responsible for projects in over 30 countries ranging from ensuring representation for detainees in Guantanamo Bay to advising UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The novel in its entirety, though, is quite readable. In Dhara’s latticed growth of a tree across her skin and the bond between the cousins is as poignant as the two sister-friends in Chitra Banerjee’s Sister of My Heart. The war-ravaged bodies and souls are reminiscent of so many powerful novels that advocate for peace.Dragonet Films is an independent Sydney-based production company producing quality Scripted content for international screens, working with visionary creative minds. Their series, documentaries and feature films have won awards and nominations including Logies and Australian Academy Awards (AACTAs) for ABC’s Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo; Writers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Composers Guild Awards for Nine’s Two Twisted; festival acclaim for feature film Being Venice; and the ATOM Award for Best Documentary for ABC’s The Man Who Saved A Million Brains. Alongside the boutique Film and TV slate, Dragonet is committed to using all the emerging pathways to audience with a narrative VR project in development with Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Chamber Orchestra and production underway with Screen Australia, on a vertical scripted action/adventure The Disposables.

Our growing scripted slate includes the riveting espionage Apple TV+ series Tehran; cozy crime procedural Whitstable Pearl; the award-winning Israeli police corruption drama Manayek; supernatural cult sensation Wynonna Earp; multi-award-winning, Berlinale Series 2020 official selection Happily Married; and Icelandic political drama The Minister. These sit alongside multiple seasons of the highly rated hit Coroner, International Emmy®-winning Marcella that has been adapted for TF1 France as Rebecca, and the Séries Mania-winning An Ordinary Woman. British star of Bridgerton and Alex Rider, Charithra Chandran, is attached to lead Synchronicity Films and Photoplay Films’ TV series Song of the Sun God, currently in development with distributor Cineflix Rights. You could argue that the Song of the Sun God is about a lot of things. Perhaps it is about 'the oldest crime'.

Advance Praise

Chandran, who will consult on the series, said: “It was vital to me to collaborate with a screenwriter who could stand where I stand, and tell of other worlds that are orientated around a different but equally important centre of gravity. Olivia Hetreed’s exceptional writing and her lived experience give her that deep empathy and insight.”