Name of a River

One of the most intriguing Indian filmmakers, Marxist and Bengali intellectual Ritwik Ghatak, died quite young. His poetic film language is unique even today. His film subjects mainly based on the Partition of India and national identity are also relevant today. Ghatak himself came from Bangladesh and became a refugee during the Partition.In his cinema début, young Indian director Anup Singh reflects on Ghatak. In a docufictional visual poem, he dwells on the emotions of a man and a woman crossing the river between Bangladesh and India. Where is their home? Where do they belong? Two lovers travelling in a boat are encountering film images, dramatic situations and myths from the life and cinema of Ritwik Ghatak. Two people, both refugees, on a journey through modern India in search of a home.Structured as a film essay, with no obvious narrative, this film creates an atmosphere of nostalgia, despair and permanent questioning in life. Landscape, dialogue, stories, actors playing themselves as well as characters from Ghatak’s films, coalesce into a single narrative about home and homelessness. The Bengali director, based in Britain, uses a love story to understand the mysteries of the historical event that led to the massacre of half a million people and made ten million people homeless.