RVA’s International Short Film-Making Awards: “U Turn” by Sri Lanka’s Oblate Scholasticate asks, “Are we brave enough to turn back?”
Speaking through bare feet, broken roads, and a wounded earth, “U Turn”, directed by Bro. Ishantha Dilhana Fernando, OMI, and produced by the Oblate Scholasticate, Kandy, stages in just over four minutes what Laudato Si’ (§205) dares to hope: that even at the brink, “all is not lost,” because humanity can still choose again.
The film opens where theology begins: dust. The Book of Genesis tells us that the human person is shaped not from marble or steel, but from soil. In U Turn, that truth is tangible: skin touching earth, breath syncing with wind—a primal harmony where dominion is not domination but belonging. Creation is not an object to be managed, but a companion to be walked with.
Then comes distance. Shoes replace skin. Roads replace soil. Progress hardens into tar, plastic, noise, and machines. The more humanity insulates itself from the earth, the more the world unravels. What Genesis describes as tohu va-wohu, the chaos before creation, creeps back in. War, exhaustion, and inner barrenness follow. This is ecological sin rendered cinematically: not loud, but relentless.
The heart-stopping moment arrives at a traffic signal marked U Turn. It is not merely a road sign; it is a moral compass pricking our conscience. The choice is clear: turn back or press on. Humanity moves forward, only to discover that forward leads to collapse. Yet, the film refuses despair. In the final act, kneeling returns. Dust receives the human again. Conversion, both personal and communal, becomes possible.
A deeply contemplative collaboration, the film features restrained performances by Bro. Dinumika Mazenod, OMI and Bro. Chrishen Dilukshan, OMI, with evocative cinematography by Sonal Disanayake and Bro. Ruwan Stephan, OMI. U Turn trusts silence more than speech.
This is not a film that merely entertains—it unsettles, invites, and asks:
How far have we gone from the dust? And are we brave enough to turn back before there is no turning back at all?
