India: Matri Bhumi

Modern times have definitely arrived in Mumbai, a megacity full of gleaming apartment blocks and motorized traffic. Meanwhile, the people of rural India—which Roberto Rossellini considers the real India—still cultivate a spiritual connection with nature.

Devi, for example, is an elephant tamer who works in forest management with his “bulldozer of the jungle.” He hooks up with the daughter of a traveling puppeteer. Later, this storyteller travels to the foothills of the Himalayas to help build a dam, constraining the water that is sacred in India, but also causes major floods. In the last part of the film, the camera follows an 80-year-old jungle dweller who is trying to protect a tiger threatened by the encroaching mining industry.

Although Rossellini’s view of India may at times appear romanticized, his use of stories of individuals to illustrate broader social developments was way ahead of his time. The magnificent shots of landscapes and architecture show a country that industrialization and modernization had already rendered unrecognizable.

India: Matri Bhumi was restored within the Rossellini project with the support of Cinecittà Luce, Cineteca Bologna, CSC – Cineteca Nazionale, Coproduction Office and provided by the Cineteca di Bologna.