While You Slept

With the end of the war, there’s been a substantial rise of Chinese investment in Sri Lanka. Hambanthota, in the South of the island, was seen as a strategic centre and witnessed a sudden influx of Chinese male migrant labour.

At a 'massage palour' in Hambantota, a local girl tends to Chinese customers. She makes herself up to look ‘Chinese’ in order to appear more authentic in the eyes of her clients. When, without a warning, the management hires a Chinese woman to live and work there, the local girl fears being made redundant. She’s threatened but at times finds herself fascinated by the new girl, in spite of herself. She grows obsessed with trying to imitate her competition. The metamorphosis has begun. In to what…remains the question.

With the transition of power, ushered in by the presidential election in January 2015, the country's relations with China have entered, a hitherto unfamiliar, transitional phase.