Monihara und Rabindranath Tagore

Sun 18.08.
20:00

Cinema

Arsenal 1

Monihara

This 54-minute film was part of the episodic film Teen Kaya (Three Daughters), whose three episodes were all based on stories by Rabindranath Tagore. MONIHARA was removed for international distribution.  The Monihara who gives her name to the film is obsessed with the urge to own 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. (gv)

Rabindranath Tagore

We will then screen the documentary portrait RADINDRANATH TAGORE about the Bengali poet and author, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for literature, philosopher, social reformer and leading figure of the Bengal Renaissance. The film reveres Tagore's humanism, which deeply influenced Ray, who voices the moving commentary himself. It ends with a passage from Tagore's 1941 essay "Crisis in Civilisation" that still resonates today: „As I look around, I see the crumbling ruins of a proud civilization strewn like a vast heap of futility. And yet I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man.“ (gv)