The God King

Awaragira is a 1990 Sri Lankan film directed by Lester James Peries and produced by Dilman Jayaratne for Dil Films. It stars Joe Abeywickrama, Iranganie Serasinghe and Tony Ranasinghe in lead roles along with Lucky Dias and Vasanthi Chathurani. Music composed by Premasiri Khemadasa.

Madol Duwa (Sinhala, Mangrove Island) is a 1976 Sri Lankan drama film directed by Lester James Peries and produced by Upasena Marasinghe. The film stars Ajith Jinadasa as Upali, a young rebellious youth who travels to a small island to get away from the restrictive society around him. The film is based on Martin Wickremasinghe's 1947 novel Madol Doova. It was a commercial success

A sprawling portrait of rural life in Sri Lanka; the story revolves around a boy and his friend--a blind girl who he accidentally 'heals' by giving her sight. Though the girl believes the boy healed her, in reality the boy has no such powers. The father of the boy fools the village folk into believing he's a healer, but ultimately the sham is exposed, causing the village to revolt against the boy and his family.

This is the sequel to Sri Lankan director Lester James Peries' Changes in the Village made in 1964, about a young couple who grew to love each other after entering into an arranged marriage. In Kaliyugaya the young couple have aged, their children are scattered, and their past is recalled in flashbacks from the former movie. Since the kali yuga is the worst of four Hindu time periods and we are in it now, the title implies that suffering is bound to arise in the 83-minutes of the movie. Although unhappiness is not a principal theme, the mother (Punya Hendenlya) does grapple with her feelings when she gets a letter from her son in London that accuses her and her husband (Henry Jayasena) of serious faults -- and she starts to go back over the past, recalling incidents that might help her to understand why her son has turned against them.

Dr. Sarath (Tony Ranasinghe) domineers over his timid wife Vineetha (Sriyani Amarasena). When she is to have a Caesarean delivery of their baby, Sarath refuses to be present even though he himself is a doctor. She dies during surgery and Sarath is forced to live with the spectre of his wife hanging over him.

Baddegama or, more correctly, Beddegama is a 1980 award winning Sinhalese language film directed by Lester James Peries that follows the lives of village people in British Colonial Sri Lanka. The film is based on the 1913 book titled as "The Village in the Jungle" by Leonard Woolf.

Nidhanaya is based on a dark tale by G.B. Senanayake and is considered a milestone film that people, even abroad, admire the most, albeit it is atypical of Lester James Peries’ customary family dramas. The story revolves around a psychotic killer yet is an underlying serious political study on the degradation of a class of society. In 1972 this film won the Silver Lion of St Mark at the 33th Venice International Film Festival and was selected as one of the outstanding films of the year, receiving a Diploma at the London Film Festival. It was also voted as the best film of the first 50 years of Sri Lankan cinema.

Sandesaya (Sinhalese language word meaning The Message) is a 1960 film. The film based on the war between the Sinhalese people and the Portuguese invaders in Sri Lanka. It was directed by Sri Lankan film director Lester James Peries. It was produced by K. Gunaratnam on behalf of the Cinemas Company on the request of Raj Kapoor.

Ammawarune ("Elegy for a Mother") is a poignant study of a widowed mother Sumanawathi and her relationship with her three grown-up children. Her elder son Kassapa is a young monk leading almost a cloistered, monastic life in an isolated temple. Though his relationship to his mother appears cold and formal, it masks a filial affection which is unrivaled by any. Daughter Premalatha has alienated herself by marrying a man of her choice, a man who practices the occult much to the discomfort of the family. Saliya, the youngest son, an unemployed youth joins the Army due to circumstances beyond his control. Bewildered by the tragic events that follow, Sumanawathi's world begins to collapse Gradually and inevitably she retreats into a world of solitude and silence.

Very loosely based on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Lester James Peries's MANSION BY THE LAKE follows a family of formerly wealthy, expatriate Sri Lankan landowners, now impoverished, as they return from England to the magnificent country estate they left behind.