There was a packed house in the morning of Friday April 19 at the Sakurazaka theater for the World Premiere of director Boodee Keerthisena’s documentary, “My Life as a Cowboy.”

The work gives audiences a fascinating view of the lives of a Colombo community that make home next to and between the railway, and has for generations. The one hour ten minute documentary captures the fast vanishing community in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka that is transforming into an Asian metropolis, replacing much of its old neighborhoods with sparkling new skyscrapers.

Boodee is one of Sri Lanka’s leading film directors and his movie series Rumassala looks into life’s mysteries like mythology and the unknown aspects of space. The series is now showing on the iFlix content platform. With a Hollywood background, Boodee has become an important name in the film industry by featuring his avant-garde productions with a human aspect.

This new documentary follows the lives of the older and younger generations living near the trains. From the view of the commuters that zip through their homes and shops they represent survival and adaptation. The movie is based on a series of interviews that reveal the stories of the people and then ends with the dream of a young boy who wants to be an actor and leave his train community forever. It is the first film to show this multi-cultural, multi-ethnic community composed of different religions and economic stations. The Sri Lankan-Japanese coproduction was supported by Yoshimoto Entertainment Company.

Before the screening the Director Boodee spoke. He thanked Yoshimoto and explained how the film came about. “(The community) is actually on my way home. Sometimes you have to cross the railway line and you see houses, houses, houses. So I was interested to see how these things looked like. So I started walking and hanging around…. This is when I discovered the neighborhood. People sometimes have tea and their living room is the railway in. It inspired me to make this film.”

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