Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage sets this tragic story of the fifties in the walled city of Galle Fort, where Violet, a middle-aged woman, has raised two daughters alone. One is married and one engaged, and she seeks to get them settled as the reappearance of Victor, her lost first love, makes her wonder if she might also be happy. It seems as if everything in her society is against her. As the filmmaker says, she ""becomes oppressed by established social forces when she begins to live according to her heart's desires."" Religious and psychological pressures make Violet's life impossible. The film not only faithfully depicts social issues in the Sri Lankan society of those times, but also shows the international influences of Chekov (Vithanage translated Chekhov into Sinhalese and directed some of his plays) and the Fifth Generation Chinese Social Realist cinema. Nita Fernando's strong performance won her the best actress award at the Singapore International Film Festival. In addition to winning most of the Sri Lankan Film Critics Forum awards, ""The Walls Within"" also took home three honors from the Amiens Film Festival.