When Helene Klodawsky, a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art, was approached by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) to direct a documentary film based on the theme of “Women and War”, the wealth of opportunities within such a broad area were overwhelming. As she told the scattered crowd at a screening in Hamilton, Ontario, she was drawn to the continuing ethnic struggle in Sri Lanka as a means of understanding how ethnic conflict and nationalist struggles impact women.

Premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in May of 2005, No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal casts aside the notion of women as solely victims of war, and highlights the strength of belief, activism, and stubborn bravery of Rajani Thiranagama. At 35, Thiranagama was a doctor, a professor, an author, and a mother. She had been an outspoken advocate for human rights in strife-ridden Sri Lanka, where government troops clashed with rebels groups in an environment just short of all out war. She helped to found the University Teachers for Human Rights, became involved in grassroots women’s rights movements, and took part in international campaigns. And in September of 1989, she was assassinated in her hometown of Jaffna.

For 15 years, her story remained untold, with friends and family fearing for their own safety if they were to step forward and speak out. No More Tears Sister relies heavily upon the on-camera remembrances of her sisters, husband, and daughters to weave the story of the woman behind the actions; the life beyond the loyalties. As such, it paints a very human picture of a complex struggle. Amidst the beautifully shot scenery and touching retellings, the tension underlying the country and its people seeps through. From the guilt-wracked conscience of her older sister, whose own membership in a rebel faction spurred Thiranagama’s interest, to her very political relationship with her husband, a man of the opposing ethnic group, the uninitiated viewer is given an introduction to a Sri Lanka that has been at war with itself for decades. Thiranagama is hailed as a pioneer for women’s rights, and human rights in general. She was a passionate woman, demonstrating to others both at home and abroad that one person can truly make a difference.

Just as important as her particular story, the film shows a darker side to political idealism. The malignant lingering of British colonialism created an environment rife with ethnic mistrust in which anti-government groups such as the Tamil separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Marxist People’s Liberation Army (PLA), skirmished with Sri Lankan government troops and Indian peacekeepers. Thiranagama herself became involved with left-leaning organisations as a university student, promoting Marxist ideals and protesting government negligence of the Tamil minority. When her sister Nirmala later introduced Rajani to the radical separatist notions of the LTTE, she became a loyal member of the organisation and saw a separate Tamil state as the only way to ensure an end to oppression. During a period of exile in London, she came to discover that the LTTE had become a more ruthless and militaristic group in the time since her joining and were guilty of atrocities equal to those of the army and peacekeeping forces. Seeking to distance herself from their violent tendencies, she withdrew from them and returned to Sri Lanka to focus her energy on documenting human rights violations. Her work earned her more enemies than friends, as the warring groups begin to see her activism as undermining their causes, and it is widely believed that she was silenced by the very group of which she was previously a member, the LTTE.

The conflict in Sri Lanka is on-going, but often flies below the radar of international media. The complex undercurrents are poorly understood by non-natives, and difficult to explain by those who have lived them. No More Tears Sister, while focussing on the story of one woman, gives an introduction to the broader mechanics of the political scene and illuminates the difficulties faced by human rights workers worldwide.

As a story, the life of Rajani Thiranagama provides interesting insight into Sri Lankan political unrest. While at first I found it very confusing to try and distinguish between the various groups and their agendas, my ignorance was due to the fact that I have no background knowledge on the subject, rather than some failing of the documentary. I felt that I came away having learned something, and with a desire to better understand the volatility of the situation. As a film, No More Tears Sister was missing something. It was interesting, but not captivating. It had gorgeous scenic vistas, family drama, and Michael Ondaatje (author of The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost) as narrator, but it lacked some indefinable quality that separates a good film from a great one.