India : Matri Bhumi

Documentary and narrative merge in Roberto Rossellini’s miraculous, poetic portrait of India. Commissioned by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, India: Matri Bhumi takes us beyond the bustling streets of the cities and into the country’s rural villages, where humans, nature, and animals coexist even as the forces of industrial modernization encroach. This unique blend of neorealist travelogue and scripted vignettes was cited by Rossellini as a personal favorite among his own works. (Criterion)