MONIHARA und RABINDRANATH TAGORE (Satyajit Ray, Indien 1961)

Sun 18.8. 20h MONIHARA Satyajit Ray India 1961 35 mm OmeU 54' RABINDRANATH TAGORE Satyajit Ray India 1961 16 mm English OF 54'

MONIHARA: The 54-minute film was part of the episodic film Teen Kaya (Three Daughters), whose three episodes were all based on stories by Rabindranath Tagore. For international distribution, -MONIHARA was removed from the film. RABINDRANATH TAGORE: The titular woman is obsessed with the urge to possess jewels. One day, when her husband asks her to return some pieces, she disappears without a trace. The second part of the film shows Ray to be a master of cinematic suspense, a virtuoso of gothic horror. We then show the documentary portrait RADINDRANATH TAGORE (India 1961) about the Bengali poet and author, Nobel Prize winner of 1913, philosopher, social reformer and leading figure of the "Bengal Renaissance". It is a film of reverence for Tagore's humanism, which deeply influenced Ray. Ray himself speaks the moving voice-over commentary, which ends with a passage from Tagore's 1941 essay "Crisis in Civilization" that still resonates today: "As I look around me, I see the crumbling ruins of a proud civilization scattered like a vast heap of futility. And yet I will not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in man."