Pather Panchali

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

Pather Panchali

India, 1955

A masterwork of world cinema, writer-director Satyajit Ray’s directorial debut, Pather Panchali (1955), is also one of its most eloquent expressions of food’s profound role in human life. Hunger frames much of Ray’s neorealist portrait of an impoverished family struggling to make ends meet in rural Bengal. Its ever-present threat lays bare the physical, cultural, emotional and spiritual dimensions of even the simplest meals. This evening’s program reflects on these resonances, particularly as intuitively understood by the couple’s young children, as well as pay tribute to Alice Waters’ longtime friend and cinema lover, Bay Area film curator, producer and festival director Tom Luddy.—Senior Public Programmer Paul Malcolm

DCP, b&w, Bengali with English subtitles, 125 min. Director: Satyajit Ray. Screenwriter: Satyajit Ray. With: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Banerjee, Chunibala Devi.

Special thanks to our community partner: UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies.