Jhumpa Lahiri meets Power of One

Coming to age story of Em, a 5 year old Eurasian expat girl in Sri Lanka torn apart by ethnic violence and mass exodus. She fights to maintain a normal life and normal relation with her family which is anything but.  The elite expat politics divide her family,  the riots drive everybody including her best friend abroad, and her father is forced into exile.  She is alone with her mother and they grow close but now, her mother is about to leave her as well. Based on actual events. (This can be shot under $1M in India.  I can assist in getting line producers and cast in India)

SYNOPSIS:

Effects of ethnic violence in 1977 Sri Lanka is seen from the eyes of a 5 year old Eurasian girl, EM, who struggles to be normal,and she is anything but. She is the only light-skinned girl in school, her father is a famous activist and a popular DJ, not to mention the fact that she is autistic. She is forced to leave her protected life in the jungle to go to school in the bustling city and her whole world is turned upside down.

The day she leaves the jungle, she encounters a riot and loses her nanny, LUCY, who practically raised her. At home, politics tears her family apart and in school, she is shunned as a colonial snob. None of these make sense to Em and she asks existential questions as only a 5 year old would and demands answers from people around her. Em’s life starts to look up when a schoolmate, FIONA, becomes her best friend and her parents make peace, but happiness does not last long. Jealousy and infidelity breaks her parents’ truce and news of Lucy’s death sends Em into deep depression. To cheer her up, her parents take her to a trip in the jungle with Fiona and her family. There they encounter dangers of the jungle and when they get back they find the city bloodied in ethnic massacre. Fiona leaves the country with her family and Em’s father is forced into exile after he criticizes the government on air about their silent collusion in the massacre.

Em hits rock bottom. Now she is all alone with her mother, but she emerges with a strong bond with her mother and together they escape to Japan and reunite with her father.