Machan: 9th February 2011

This is a truly excellent Sri Lankan movie based on the true story of the not-so-real Sri Lankan National Handball Team. A group of troubled slum dwellers living on the margins of society under impossible pressures think their prayers have been answered in the form of an invitation to travel to Bavaria for the 2004 International Handball Championships but they find that the invitation was not intended as a one-way ticket into the Golden West. While Machan handles some delicate social issues, it is never overly-sentimental and never melodramatic, but brims with charm, compassion and ultimately hope.