Dive into the cinematic universe by Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray starts from Thursday, February 16 and will last until Monday, February 20 at the Film Archive of Greece, in a tribute that will be presented simultaneously in Athens and the Film Archive of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Film Festival, which last year, with occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Indian “auteur” made a first small tribute to his work.

As part of the tribute entitled “Passage to India through the eyes of Satyajit Ray”, nine of his feature fiction films will be screened, in restored prints, among them the monumental Apu Trilogy, which has gone down in the history of cinema. It is noted that in all three films the music is his Ravi Shankar.

Screenings at the Greek Film Library are prefaced by film critics, journalists and directors.

Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) profoundly influenced world cinema with his rich body of work, as well as generations and generations of filmmakers. He is the innovator of Indian cinema. “Until the 1950s, Indian cinema was dominated by melodramas filmed in studios and completely standardized,” notes the director of the Film Library, Maria Komninou. “Ray brings a revolution by taking the machine to the road and assimilates the lessons of Renoir and Italian neorealism in a revelatory representation of the countryside, which brings the viewer face to face with the big questions of fate and social contrasts but also highlights the poetry of the small things with a pristine look that renews cinematography. The lack of means and the difficulties of filming, in the Apu Trilogy, sparked the director’s ingenuity and brought out a unique style and an innovative way of expression. Equally important are the films that trace the contradictions of life in the big urban centers because Ray’s multifaceted talent creates exemplary scenarios for all aspects of life in modern India,” he adds.

Sayajit Ray was born in Calcutta and was left fatherless at a very early age. He studied fine art with the great thinker Rabindranath Tagore, while working as a successful graphic designer and art director in advertising. In 1947 he founded the Calcutta Film Club and in a six-month trip to Europe managed to see 100 films. In 1949 his meeting and collaboration with Jean Renoir, who was traveling to India for the filming of his film “The River”, significantly influenced Ray and pushed him to work in cinema. When two years later, in 1951, on a trip to England he sees “The Bicycle Thief” by Vittorio De Sica, his decision to make cinema is finalized.

The influence of Italian neorealism is evident in his first films, the so-called “Trilogy of Apu”.

After several difficulties in making his debut film, Road Song (1955), Ray showed that Indian cinema is not just Bollywood.

By the time of his death in 1992, Ray had directed a total of 36 films. His cinema is mainly realistic and austere in its form, but also deeply humanistic. It moves between the tradition and modernization of India, while touching on issues such as the position of women, colonialism and the rigid structures of Indian society.

In Ray’s diverse and heterogeneous work there is always a deep humanistic vein, a constant influence of Italian neorealism. In his films, which move between tradition and modernism, the decline of feudalism and the rise of an ambitious bourgeoisie, Hindu religious traditions and rich Indian mythology coexist with social reflection and a critical eye towards in colonialism and the rigid structures of Indian society. Ray’s work, majestic and authentic, never losing sight of existential woes and human passions, is a meeting point of the Western humanist tradition and the interiority of the East.

From writing the script and filming the shots to composing the music and designing the posters, the 36 “handmade” films in his filmography were the result of his personal holistic approach as a creator.

And his vision was rewarded: A Golden Lion at Venice, one Golden and two Silver Bears at the Berlinale, two special awards at Cannes, 36 wins at the Indian National Awards, and many more international accolades, culminating in an honorary Oscar for the ensemble of his contribution to cinema in 1992.

“If you haven’t seen Ray’s cinema, it’s like you’ve never seen the sun or the moon” said about Ray Akira Kurosawa.