Pather Panchali
Presented by Main Street Landing and VTIFF
Directed by Satyajit Ray
India | Bengali w/ English Subtitles | 1955 | 125 min.
Pre-Screening discussion led by Barry Snyder, 6:00-6:30
Dobra Tea sponsored tea reception, 6:15-7:00
Screening starts at 7:00pm
New 4K restoration made by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with
the Academy Film Archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Human Document, Cannes Film Festival, 1956
Best Foreign Film, National Board of Review, 1957
Best Picture, Best Director, San Francisco International Film Festival, 1957
The release in 1955 of Satyajit Ray’s debut, Pather Panchali, introduced to the world an
eloquent and important new cinematic voice. A depiction of rural Bengali life in a style
inspired by Italian neorealism, this naturalistic but poetic evocation of a number of years in
the life of a family introduces us to both little Apu and, just as essentially, the women who will
help shape him: his independent older sister, Durga; his harried mother, Sarbajaya, who, with
her husband often away, must hold the family together; and his kindly and mischievous elderly
“auntie,” Indir—vivid, multifaceted characters all. With resplendent photography informed by
its young protagonist’s perpetual sense of discovery, the Cannes-awarded Pather Panchali is
an immersive cinematic experience and a film of elemental power.
“Never having seen a Satyajit Ray film is like never having seen the sun or the moon.”
—AKIRA KUROSAWA
