COLOMBO — Beneath Sri Lanka’s serene waters, a pearl oyster cherished her pearl, living in harmony. But disaster struck when a blazing ship sank, poisoning the sea. Entangled in debris, she lost her treasured pearl. Desperate, she started to search despite the waves and found glistening orbs. Believing she had recovered her lost pearl, she embraced the glistening objects. Yet, they were not pearls, but toxic plastic pellets, part of the ship’s deadly cargo. As the poison seeped into her, she closed her shell one last time. The ocean, once her sanctuary, became her grave. This haunting narrative unfolds in This is Not a Pearl, a short film by Sri Lankan filmmaker Tharindu Ramanayaka, which powerfully illustrates the environmental catastrophe caused by the MV X-Press Pearl disaster in artistic form. The film delves into the aftermath of the ship’s sinking off Sri Lanka’s west coast in May 2021, an event that triggered the world’s largest-ever spill of nurdles, the tiny pellets from which plastic products are made. A total of 1,680 metric tons of nurdles, from 87 containers, were unleashed into the ocean. The 15-minute experimental production “This is Not a Pearl” serves as a cinematic protest, using artistic expression to powerfully portray the environmental devastation caused by the sinking of the cargo carrier X-Press Pearl. Image courtesy of Tharindu Ramanayaka. Sri Lanka has long been known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” not just for its breathtaking landscapes and rich biodiversity, but also for its famed Gulf of…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Award-winning film highlights lasting damage from X-Press Pearl disaster in Sri Lanka
