Projecting the Archive

The End of the River

+ intro by film scholar Dr Kulraj Phullar

Former editor Derek N. Twist directs Sabu in this Powell and Pressburger-produced drama.

  • Director

    Derek N. Twist

  • With

    Sabu, Bibi Ferreira, Esmond Knight, Antoinette Cellier, Robert Douglas

  • UK 1947. 102min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    U

  • A BFI National Archive print

‘Who is guilty, the twig or the current?’ asks a courtroom lawyer, making a plea for clemency for a native Brazilian (played by Indian star Sabu) who fate has led from his jungle village to a murder trial. Produced by Powell and Pressburger, and directed by Powell’s one-time editor Derek Twist, the presented-in-flashback drama was released soon after Black Narcissus, but replaces its studio-created exoticism with black and white location footage shot by Archers-regular Christopher Challis.

James Bell

Also available on BFI Player

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