Goddess/Devi

Satyajit Ray, (1960) 93 mins.

Screening Sunday 14th 6.15pm €12

'Ray's magic, the simple poetry of his images and their emotional impact will always stay with me.' Martin Scorsese The celebrated filmmaker and writer Rebecca Miller has selected the great Satyajit Ray's rarely seen film 'Goddess' for this year's programme. Ray is the acknowledged master of Indian cinema, a kind of Kurosawa type figure, he towers over its film history. In the film a man becomes convinced that his daughter-in-law has become a sort of God, a divine being. The seemingly miraculous restoring of a sick child to health only confirms these feelings. The film beautifully and sensitively traces the intergenerational conflicts that arise as a result of this divine discovery, and the gap it opens up between two worlds. It is undoubtedly among the director's best work, arriving directly after his rightly acclaimed Apu trilogy. It is a subtle and poignant meditiation on class, spirituality and gender. The film will be fascinating to see alongside 'Sita Sings The Blues', a very different story of an Indian spiritual figure. An acknowledged inspiration to the writer and filmmaker Rebecca Miller, who will provide a personal introduction to the film at the festival.

Presented by Rebecca Milller

Venue Cinema 2