Pather Panchali

#35 greatest film of all time, 2022 Sight and Sound critics’ poll
Best Human Document, 1956 Cannes Film Festival
Best Feature Film, 1956 National Film Awards of India

With PATHER PANCHALI, the world is introduced to young Apu, his older sister Durga, and their headstrong mother, who watches over the family through the seasons as her poet-priest husband searches for work outside the village.

The film also introduced the world to a graphic designer-turned-director named Satyajit Ray, who would go on to becoming one of cinema’s all-time greats. In his first film, Ray proved a poet of the real, showing a profound eye for village detail, children’s lives, and societal change, while grasping for a human sensation one can only call “wonder.” From Apu’s unforgettable entrance, to a mythic encounter with a train, to a rain scene set only to Ravi Shankar’s sitar, Ray’s debut ensured that the movies would never look or feel the same again.