Okay film, but lacks distinction. Feels like a cross between My Dinner With Andre and an after-school special. One could compare this, Ray's final film, to Madadayo, Kurosawa's final film (made only two years apart). Both center around a wise elder who (arguably) represents the director himself. Kurosawa's swan song is sweeter.

I fucking love you, Satyajit Ray. The Stranger is a conversation film with marvelous dialogue. A reasonably gentle identity parable simmers beneath each scene, and climaxes with explorations into the philosophies of culture; anthropology and ethnography. Very accessible edutainment of a subject I hold close and dear.

Slow paced, gentle, humane, a little ponderous but worth it in the end.