Sulochana Akalanka

The Tea is Cold (2022), a short film by Nayomi Apsara, follows Randika, a young man from Colombo, traveling to post-war Jaffna for an assignment. Initially detached and focused on social media, he confronts the enduring, raw trauma of locals, including a silent mother, impoverished businessmen, and disabled individuals—revealing that while the war ended, profound suffering remains.

The movie opens up with an accidental death of a 30 years old youth. At the autopsy, investigators find his identity card which belongs to ‘Revatha the Buddhist monk’. It stirs the hornet’s nest in the neighborhood where Revatha used to live, as at the time of his death, he had disrobed. Therefore, parishioners of his temple object to bringing his body to the temple and holding a monk’s funeral. Then the movie begins to reveal the backstory till his death.