An Indian princess in self-exile celebrates her birthday with her father’s former tutor, watching documentaries that show the beauty of her native country in the time prior to independence. A personal favourite of James Ivory, who seems to have tailored his own film autobiography some time after this gem.
In 1960, James Ivory visited Afghanistan to make a documentary – which was never finished. The materials of that project form the backbone for this look at Ivory’s upbringing and first steps in cinema: an essay on history, memory and the vanities of civilisation-building, not to mention desire.