Days and Nights in the Forest

Lesser known but deeply revered, Days and Nights in the Forest by legendary Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray re-emerges as a masterwork in this stunning new restoration. The loose plot is set in motion as four young men from Calcutta head to the Palamau forest in Eastern Bihar for some rest and relaxation, only to have their ideals and assumptions challenged.

Effortlessly, elegantly directed, this shimmering summer tale charts the unexpected self-discovery of Ashim, the confident leader; timid Sanjoy; Hari, the athlete wrestling with a broken heart; and unemployed jokester Sekhar, as their silly, boozy escapades are upended by their encounters with two upper-caste sisters and a local tribeswoman.

Based on Sunil Gangopadhyay’s 1967 novel, Days and Nights in the Forest depicts more than a clash of the sexes and social statuses, dexterously revealing a wide range of human behaviours — and fallibility — as the men are compelled to ditch their big city façades during their pastoral parenthesis. Starring two of Ray’s favourite actors, Soumitra Chatterjee (best known as the adult Apu) and the incomparably elegant Sharmila Tagore, this roundelay of seduction also functions like a portrait of bourgeois Indian youth in the late ’60s.

At once precise and unfettered, oozing charm, humour, wit,and modernist flair, the film balances the breezy with a richly nuanced reflection on the caste system and prejudices dividing traditional Indian society.

ANDRÉA PICARD

A presentation and restoration by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Immagine Ritrovata, together with the Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and Criterion Collection. Financed by the Golden Globe Foundation. With special thanks to Wes Anderson. 4K restoration made from the original camera negative and sound preserved by Purnima Dutta, and the magnetic track stored in the BFI National Archive. With thanks to Sandip Ray.