| Beddegama | |
| Alt: | Village in the Jungle |
| Director: | Lester James Peries |
| Producer: | P. Wilfred Perera |
| Story: | Leonard Woolf |
| Based On: | The Village in the Jungle |
| Starring: | Malini Fonseka Joe Abeywickrama Vijaya Kumaratunga |
| Music: | Nimal Mendis |
| Cinematography: | Willie Blake Donald Karunaratna |
| Editing: | Gladwin Fernando |
| Country: | Sri Lanka |
| Runtime: | 130 minutes |
| Language: | Sinhala |
Beddegama (The Village in the Jungle) is a 1980 Sinhala drama film directed by Lester James Peries that follows the lives of village people in British Colonial Sri Lanka.[1] [2] The film is based on the 1913 book The Village in the Jungle by Leonard Woolf. Sir Arthur C. Clarke also has a minor role in the film as an English Judge.[3]
The lives of a poor family in a small village called Beddegama (literally, "The village in the jungle") as they struggle to survive the challenges presented by poverty, disease, superstition, the unsympathetic colonial system, and the jungle itself. The head of the family is a hunter named Silindu, who has two daughters named Punchi Menika and Hinnihami. After being manipulated by the village authorities and a debt collector, Silindu is put on trial for murder