The Goddess - 35mm print

(Devi, Satyajit Ray, India 1960, 93 min., 35mm print)

A wealthy, deeply religious Brahman landlord, dreams that his seventeen-year-old daughter-in-law is a reincarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali. Ray's sixth film offers insight into the manners and mores of the aristocracy, and raises the issue of female identity within its familial structures. An eroticism is subtly evoked in settings made sensual by the textures of light and darkness, silence, and sound. Because of its candor about the power of superstition, The Goddess was banned for export by the Indian government; the man who lifted the ban was Nehru himself, the former prime minister of India.