INDIA, MATRI BHUMI

The film consists of four episodes through which Roberto Rossellini’s impressions and feelings about India and its society emerge. The film opens with the story of an elephant driver getting married. This is followed by a labourer who has worked on the Irakud damn for seven years and who wants to leave the village; then there is an old peasant who saves a tiger’s life; finally, there is the story of the monkey which finds itself alone in the desert after its owner’s death. Rossellini went to India in 1957 to direct a documentary mini-series (L’India vista da Rossellini) for the Italian and French televisions. He also wanted to make a feature film. The drafted script (written with Iranian scriptwriter Fereyoun Hoveyda) completely changed as soon as he started to work with the young Indian woman Sonali Senroy Das Gupta. The feature film was shot in parallel to the documentary mini-series, with the same team.