Kaimera (2020)
★ — Kaimera (2020)
Sri Lanka is not a country that appears frequently on the international short film circuit, which makes Kaimera (2020) a reasonably curious entry in the broader landscape of South Asian independent cinema. Running at just twenty-five minutes, it sits in that awkward but sometimes rewarding pocket occupied by short films that attempt genre filmmaking on minimal resources: fantasy, mystery, and thriller instincts pressed into a compact running time, all without the backing of a recognisable studio. For anyone working through world cinema by region, it represents one of the rare chances to see what independent Sri Lankan filmmakers are doing when left entirely to their own devices.
The film was written and directed by Githen Kiruba, who also appears in front of the camera alongside Achlanka Dilukshan, Vidursha Vaishali, and Priyan Kiruba. It is very much a family and close-collaborator production in the truest sense, the sort of project assembled by people who share both a creative vision and, quite possibly, a dinner table. The premise leans into well-worn but reliably atmospheric territory: a man begins picking up a mysterious radio broadcast that only emerges at midnight, and as his fixation with it grows, so does something unsettling in his behaviour and his sense of reality. The radio as a vessel for the uncanny has a long history in horror and mystery fiction (think of all those stories about signals from the dead, or pirates broadcasting from nowhere), and it is a premise that has fuelled everything from literary short stories to full-length genre films. Whether Kaimera does justice to that tradition is where things get interesting. For another short-form mystery that plays with dread and atmosphere, Moshari is worth a look from the same decade, and fans of folk fantasy mythology might also find something to chew on in Viy, another fantasy film covered here. If you are after a mystery that actually delivers on its premise, the classic The 39 Steps remains a reliable benchmark, while Luigi is another short mystery review from this site worth comparing notes with.
Achlanka Dilukshan carries the bulk of the screen time as the central figure caught in this spiral, and the film rests heavily on his ability to convey internal unravelling with limited dialogue. It is a physically quiet performance in a physically quiet film, the kind of short that trusts its images more than its words, for better or worse. The production has the feel of something polished but unremarkable in places, clearly made with care even where the resources were stretched thin.
A-Z World Movie Tour Sri Lanka Kaimera had an interesting premise. A photographer stumbles upon a mysterious, ghostly radio broadcast and becomes obsessed with uncovering its origins, but somewhere along the way, it just… goes nowhere. What starts with eerie potential quickly fizzles into a series of moody shots of static, empty streets, and a man staring pensively into the middle distance. The atmosphere is there, sure, and the idea of a phantom signal bleeding through the airwaves could’ve been haunting. But instead of building tension or mystery, the film just floats, aimlessly, like the signal itself. It’s not that it’s badly made, the cinematography is actually quite good, all shadows and grain, like a VHS tape left in the rain. But there’s no emotional core, no real character development, and the story feels hollow. You wait for a revelation, a twist, even a moment of human connection, but it never comes. It’s all mood and metaphor with nothing underneath. The longer it goes, the more it feels like nothing, like watching someone else’s half-remembered dream. It’s not offensive, not offensive at all, just empty. And in a film that’s supposed to be about obsession and the unseen, you’d hope for something to latch onto. Ambitious in concept, but ultimately a ghost of a movie. There’s a signal, but no one’s home.
So there we have it. The bones of something genuinely unsettling are visible throughout, and I can see what Kiruba was reaching for, that slow dissolution of self through obsession. But good intentions and a decent visual instinct only carry you so far when the story itself refuses to arrive anywhere. Short films have a particular obligation to make every minute count, and here too many of them are spent waiting for a payoff that never materialises. I will keep an open mind about what Sri Lankan independent cinema has to offer going forward, but on this occasion, the signal really is coming from an empty room.
Rating: ★ | Year: 2020 | Watched: 2025-09-07
Where to watch
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More mystery: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · One Way or Another (1975)
