India: Matri Bhumi (1959)

Several stories depicting the landscapes and fauna of India are mixed with documentary footage.

Director:

Roberto Rossellini

Writers:

Roberto Rossellini (screenplay), Sonali Senroy DasGupta (screenplay)

2 nominations.

Storyline

Divided into four episodes Roberto Rosellini's performs a ritual trip with India covering culture, beautiful architecture and also the State of India society, create an impression and a feeling of Rossellini on the State of the Indian community at that time.

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Plot Keywords:

riding an elephant | trained animal | artificial lake | modern life | jungle | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Drama

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Did You Know?

Quotes

Narrator: When faced with death, the general belief is that when a man dies, his life doesn't end, because he's reincarnated in another. But no one knows in whom. Therefore, all men are brothers.

User Reviews

A disappointment

Perhaps it was the incredibly washed-out, virtually monochrome print. Perhaps it was the non-stop painful soundtrack of bird noises. Perhaps it was the overbearing, condescending ceaseless narration.

But mostly this supposed masterpiece reminded me of schoolroom educational films. The camera work is not particularly great; we learn little about actual (as opposed to staged) life in India; though closely immersed in local settings, there is virtually no geographic, historic or temporal overview to guide us; and the staged sequences come across as forced and distancing, most alarmingly with the monkey sequence at the end (it verges on flat out cruelty). Other sections have sudden and jarring outcomes that work entirely against the drawn-outness of the rest.

I can't think of a film that has aged less well than this basic documentary. Just because it's by a master doesn't make it a masterpiece. And yes, I watched it closely, understood its structure and themes and so forth. There are good sequences in the film (the elephant logging and dam building in particular evoke a clearly dichotomous relationship with nature) but it could have been well-trimmed, better contextualized, and shorn of its irritating narration.

What we have here is an outsider's, deastheticized, desaturated, scattershot, only slightly empathetic view of India. Let the images speak! And, most of all, let the Indians speak for themselves. It's taken 50 years to realize we should give them the cameras (Born into Brothels comes to mind.)

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

4 February 1960 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Inde, terre mère

Filming Locations:

Hirakud, Odisha, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aniene Film, Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Gevacolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1