Pather Panchali

Satyajit Ray’s first feature is sheer poetry on film as village boy Apu makes magical discoveries but also faces death and loss.

Ray chose a small family in a poor village to tell the story of rural Bengal and the great migration to cities. Filmed sporadically outside Calcutta on weekends, Ray’s collaboration with Subrata Mitra (camera) and Ravi Shankar (music) put Indian cinema on the global map, and made Apu an enduring cultural figure.

Ranked 35th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.