Laka
Laka is a cross cultural love story that starts with a first kiss in Sydney, Australia, and ends with a birth in the remote Arnhem land bush. For too many years Lily, a Yolngu woman from the Northern Territory, has suppressed her yearning to go home. Now heavily pregnant, visions of her ancestral land have taken over her waking life. Lily believes it’s her unborn child calling out to her, entreating her to be born on country. Lily’s husband Siddhartha, a Sri Lankan Australian, is unwilling to disrupt their stable life in Sydney, forcing Lily to choose between her land and her love. She chooses her land. One night Lily leaves Siddhartha, and begins the long drive back home to Arnhem Land. In shock over his wife’s sudden departure, Siddhartha has his own vision. He recalls his mother left Sri Lanka during civil war not for herself, but for him – for his safety. Understanding now the duty one has to future generations, Siddhartha begins to follow Lily across the country to the remote Northern Territory. Along the way Lily struggles with self-doubt and calls upon the strength of her ancestors to carry her home. Along the way Siddhartha too meets an ancestor, and we learn that Lily and Siddhartha’s ancient ancestries are intertwined… In the final scenes Lily gives birth in the remote Arnhem Land bush. Siddhartha is finally reunited with his wife and meets his new baby on his wife’s country.
Director
Shakthi is a writer / director and producer of screen and theatre and a composer of original music.
Recent projects include feature film, Riz, which premiered at Sydney Film Festival in 2015; Shakthi’s debut long form play, A Counting and Cracking, currently in development with Belvoir Theatre and premiering as part of their 2019 season, and Laka, a multi-platform film and VR project which is set to tour the world from 2018-2019 through a commission from the Streaming Museum (NY).
Shakthi was Associate Artist at Carriageworks from 2013-2015 and a founding directorate member of National Theatre of Parramatta in 2017. In 2015, he was awarded the Phillip Parson’s Playwright Award from Belvoir Theatre and in 2011 the Kirk Robson Award by Australia Council for the Arts, given to an artist for their work in relation to social justice and community cultural leadership.
Shakthi is the founder and artistic director of innovative arts and social change company CuriousWorks. Shakthi has led the CuriousWorks team to develop an award-winning model for the innovative use of creative digital media in marginalised communities. This work has led to long-term, multi-platform arts
initiatives as well as significant grassroots social change in communities in Western Sydney and remote Western Australia.