Produced by: Information & Cultural Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal, India
Released between 1955 and 1959, the three films that became known as Satyajit Ray’s “Apu Trilogy” introduced a major new filmmaking talent to the world. Based on a classic Bengali novel (“The Song of the Road” by Bibhutibhusan Banerji), the trilogy traces the life of its young hero, Apu, starting in “Pather Panchali” with his boyhood in a remote Bengali village. “Aparajito” (“The Unvanquished”) follows his adolescence and growing ambitions in the slums of Benares, while in “Apur Sansar” (“The World of Apu”) the tragic end of an all-too-brief marriage leads to his self-imposed exile and final reconciliation with his young son.
With the release in 1955 of Satyajit Ray’s debut, Pather Panchali, an eloquent and important new cinematic voice made itself heard all over the world. 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 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, Pather Panchali, which won an award for Best Human Document at Cannes, is an immersive cinematic experience and a film of elemental power. (The Criterion Collection)