Watch trailer
The film will be preceded by an Odissi Dance Performance by Prachi Hota and Introduced by film curator Anupma Shanker.
Winner of the International Prize at Cannes in 1951, Jean Renoir’s intoxicating first colour feature – shot entirely on location in India – is an adaptation of Rumer Godden’s autobiographical coming-of-age tale of an adolescent girl living with her English family on the banks of the Ganges during the waning years of British colonial life.
Exquisitely shot in luminous Technicolor by Renoir’s nephew Claude, The River is a visual tour de force and a glorious, meditative tribute to the sights and sounds of Indian culture. Perhaps Renoir’s most symbolic and spiritual film, displaying great humanity and refreshing simplicity, The River received tremendous international acclaim and remains one of his most popular films.
Anupma Shanker
The film has been chosen by guest curator Anupma Shanker. Anupma is a British-Indian film curator and archives researcher, with a deep and evolving interest in colonial & post-colonial screen narratives. Her curatorial practice is focussed on researching, screening and creating conversations around heritage films, with aim of making them accessible to a wider audience, both within and outside the UK. Her other interests include, Black-British cinema, Post-war Japanese Cinema, Indian Parallel Cinema, and Iranian New-wave Cinema.
Prachi started training in Odissi at the age of three, under the well acclaimed Odissi dancer, Guru Smt. Arpita Venkatesh in Kolkata. She has completed twenty-three years of training, and has been performing as a professional artist for the past fourteen years. She has been honoured with awards and titles from the National Culture Mission, the All-India Dancers’ Association and a National Scholarship from the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, Government of India to name a few. She also regularly organises seminars about dance titled Samanubhāsanā - Conversations About Indian Dance to create a space for discussing issues that affect Indian dance in the 21st Century.
Cast:
Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Suprova Mukerjee