TORONTO: Less than a month after staging a retrospective of the legendary Indian filmmaker’s work, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be showcasing Satyajit Ray’s final feature, Agantuk or The Stranger, at its main event.
Part of the Cinametheque section, Agantuk will be screened as part of the 2022 edition of the 11-day festival, which commences on September 8. The screening will also mark the world premiere of a 4K or high-quality digital restoration of the original movie, which was originally released in 1991. This version comes to TIFF courtesy the National Film Development Corporation of India and the National Film Archive of India.
“Agantuk is an important film in Ray’s oeuvre and one he was quite proud of. We hope it will appeal to audiences less familiar with Ray’s body of work and also be a treat for the many TIFF audiences who came out to enjoy the recent series,” Jessica Smith, Manager, TIFF Cinematheque, told the Hindustan Times via email.
The recent showcase, Satyajit Ray: His Contemporaries and Legacy, was featured in August and consisted of ten films, including four by Ray. It opened with Charulata, released in 1964. That was “timed to commemorate India’s 75th anniversary of Independence”, Smith said and this restoration wasn’t available for that film series.
{{/usCountry}}The recent showcase, Satyajit Ray: His Contemporaries and Legacy, was featured in August and consisted of ten films, including four by Ray. It opened with Charulata, released in 1964. That was “timed to commemorate India’s 75th anniversary of Independence”, Smith said and this restoration wasn’t available for that film series.
{{/usCountry}}Five classics are being featured at the TIFF Cinematheque component of the festival, including Agantuk. Also listed are Mary Harron’s I Shot Andy Warhol, Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom, Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies and Guy Maddin’s Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux.
Agantuk was described by TIFF as a “remarkably personal final film”.
“The final film by Satyajit Ray has been cited as the auteur’s most philosophical, intellectual, and personal. Ray enthusiasts would probably infer that the views of the protagonist are in fact Ray speaking his mind. Ray’s deep study of human behaviour is reflected most prominently here,” it noted.
Ray, who made is debut with Pather Panchali in 1955, passed away in Kolkata in 1992, less than a month after receiving an Honorary Academy Award.