Rajee Samarasinghe

Rajee SAMARASINGHE (1988, Sri Lanka) was born and raised amidst the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka. He later left for the United States where he is now based. Much of his work examines sociopolitical conditions in Sri Lanka through the scope of deconstructing ethnographic practices and the colonial gaze in contemporary media. Samarasinghe’s films have screened internationally including at the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition at IFFR in 2020. In the same year, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film and in 2021 he had a solo show at the MoMA (Modern Mondays). He made his feature debut with Your Touch Makes Others Invisible (2025), with the support of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, Berlinale Talents’ Doc Station and Field of Vision.
Filmography
(selection) 01.39411.999 (2012, short), The Queen of Material (2014, short), black widow summer set (2015, short), An Appearance of Fortitude (2015, short), If I Were Any Further Away I’d Be Closer to Home (2016, short), The Spectre Watches Over Her (2016, short), Foreign Quarters (2017, short), The Exile (2018, short), everyday star (2018, short), Imitation of Life (2019, short), The Eyes of Summer (2020, doc), The past (2021), Misery Next Time (2021), Show Me Other Places (2021), Agantukayan/Strangers (2022), Lotus-Eyed Girl (2023, short), Your Touch Makes Others Invisible (2025)
More info: Rajee Samarasinghe
Rajee Samarasinghe at IFFR
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Your Touch Makes Others Invisible
A heterogenous docufiction investigating enforced disappearances during the 26-year-long Sri Lankan Civil War.
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Lotus-Eyed Girl
A hauntingly evocative, experimental rumination on the effects of colonialism on human desire.
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The Eyes of Summer
In a Sri Lankan hamlet a shy girl becomes friends with a spirit. Based on the filmmaker’s mother’s childhood experiences.
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Luna e Santur
Luna e Santur was inspired by a paranormal encounter. Masked figures engaged in a mysterious, passionate ritual filtered through stroboscopic