The real stars are here

Fisherman Cyril and tuk-tuk driver Nilankar are in Dubai to attend the film festival where their documentary will be filmed.

Two of the key elements in Dhruv Dhawan's From Dust will attend the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

Cyril the fisherman and Nilankar, a tuk-tuk driver by profession who worked on From Dust as a sound man, arrived on Saturday It was a bitter irony of sorts for the two men, who are homeless in their country and spend their nights in tents, to arrive and enjoy the hospitality of a luxury hotel.

No place like home

"It's nice. It's big. It's beautiful. But we prefer the beaches of Sri Lanka," they said of their first impressions.

Describing the situation back in Sri Lanka as pretty hopeless, Nilankar said he learnt a lot as a sound man and enjoyed his experience of working on a feature documentary.

"There are no jobs. The government didn?t even repair my tuk-tuk after it was damaged in the tsunami. It was an Italian who fixed it for me," he said.

As for Cyril, he has only recently been given a boat by the government.

However, since he had not registered his previous boat, he was not eligible for other accessories such as a fishing net and could not go out to sea.

"I'm not afraid. I would love to go out again, but there is no way," he said.

The 100-metre buffer zone has proved to be a huge source of discord between the people who lived there and the governmen.

And though the two men voted for an opposition that promised to revoke it, their choice didn't win and the zone still stands.

"We want to stay near the sea," said the fisherman, "but our wives want to go inland as they?re afraid. There are still tsunami scares, but it's our livelihood. It's all I know."

Having said that, both of them did not rule out the possibility of coming to Dubai to work, if they found the right job.

"There is nothing in Sri Lanka. It's beautiful, true, but no jobs. No money," Nilankar said.
 
For this visit though, he is content with visiting the bazaar and picking up a tape recorder with speakers for his tuk-tuk.

"It's to play music for the tourists. Bob Marley music," he said with a laugh.