The Citizen

Nagarik

Ritwik Ghatak’s film explores ideas of lost home and hope in post-Partition Kolkata.

  • Director

    Ritwik Ghatak

  • With

    Satindra Bhattacharya, Prabhadevi, Sova Sen, Ketaki Devi

  • India 1952. 123min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • English subtitles

This crowdfunded film, released posthumously in 1977, could have marked the beginning of the Indian New Wave. The story of a displaced family taking shelter in a rental house resembling a claustrophobic well, The Citizen heralds Ghatak’s cinematic universe, structured around the themes of dislocation and the lost ‘home’, and underpinned by resounding optimism.

The screening of The Citizen on Friday 26 June will be introduced by Ashvin Devasundaram, Queen Mary University of London.