A letter to Anila announcing the return of her long lost uncle leaves her curious and provokes deep suspicion from her husband, Sudhin. On his arrival, uncle Manmohan proves to be highly charming. However neither husband nor wife are truly convinced, less out of suspicion and more because Manmohan’s larger-than-life nature leaves him out of place in their mundane life. An anthropologist affected with “wanderlust”, Manmohan’s experience of different cultures leaves him a stranger in his homeland and an outsider amongst his family.
Adapted from one of his own stories, Satyajit Ray’s The Stranger is a refined philosophical comedy; gentle in its satire of middle-class family mores and elegiac for the traditions of hospitality it weakly upholds. The film, produced by French admirers Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Toscan du Plantier, proved to Ray’s last, a fitting capstone to a landmark career.
"A small, gentle, exquisitely realized comedy about, among other things, family loyalties and trust in a world in which traditions have been devalued" - New York Times
Technical: 1991 / 95 minutes / Bengali with English subtitles / Mono audio / 1.33 : 1 Colour / DVD PAL Multi Region / MRBDVD021
Licensed through Contemporary Films on behalf of Satyajit Ray Estate.
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