Beddegama (The Village in the Jungle) is a 1980 Sinhala drama film directed by Lester James Peries that follows the lives of village people in British Colonial Sri Lanka.^[1][2] The film is based on the 1913 book The Village in the Jungle by Leonard Woolf. Sir Arthur C. Clarke also has a minor role in the film as an English Judge.^[3]

The lives of a poor family in a small village called Beddegama (literally, "The village in the jungle") as they struggle to survive the challenges presented by poverty, disease, superstition, the unsympathetic colonial system, and the jungle itself. The head of the family is a hunter named Silindu, who has two daughters named Punchi Menika and Hinnihami. After being manipulated by the village authorities and a debt collector, Silindu is put on trial for murder

• Malini Fonseka as Punchi Menika
• Joe Abeywickrama as Silindu
• Vijaya Kumaratunga as Babun
• Tony Ranasinghe as Fernando mudalali
• Nadeeka Gunasekara as Hinni hami
• Trilishya Abeykoon as Karlina hami
• D. R. Nanayakkara as Exorcist and traditional physician
• Henry Jayasena as Village head Babehami Arachchi
• Arthur C. Clarke as Leonard Woolf
• Trilicia Gunawardena as Karalina, Silindu's sister
• David Dharmakeerthi as Mudali
• Indira Abeydheera as Nanchohami
• Vincent Vaas

• List of Sri Lankan films

• Beddegama at IMDb
• National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka - Official Website
• Official website of Lester James Peries in association with Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Sri Lanka
• San Francisco International Film Festival