PATHER PANCHALI (Songs of the Little Road, Satyajit Ray, Indien 1955)

In the organizer's words:

Sat 20.7., 19h & Sat 10.8., 20.30h PATHER PANCHALI Songs of the Little Road Satyajit Ray India 1955 35 mm OmdU 126'

Little Apu grows up in a Bengali village in poor circumstances in a Brahmin family. His father, Harihar, is a dreamer whose lack of life keeps his family in poverty, while his mother Sarbajaya desperately tries to save the family from hunger. Harihar's big plans for his son do not materialize. Together with his sister Durga, Apu roams the surroundings of the village to forget the domestic misery, at least for a short time. When Satyajit Ray began work on his film debut, he was familiar with the major works of the first five decades of cinema history thanks to numerous screenings by the Calcutta Film Society, which he co-founded, and a stay in London. He was particularly influenced by Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, Italy 1948) by Vittorio De Sica.
influenced him. For two and a half years, he shot the adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's novel of the same name with Subrata Mitra (camera) and Bansi Chandragupta (set design) parallel to his work as a commercial artist. Shortly after its premiere, the film achieved worldwide fame and has since become one of the milestones in film history.