India: Matri Bhumi

Great photography, good subjects, mediocre narration. More than a documentary about India this is a video essay about a few events Rossellini encountered while there. The two main things that stand out are the elephants and the dam construction worker. I suppose there's a parallel there, both used as something slightly above slaves, both with their own interests and passions, both helping to reshape the country, but they stand on their own as interesting stories.

After Renoir and before Malle, Rossellini makes his own attempt to enlighten viewers about India, focusing on its scale, and on work and toil, not just for humans but for animals. The most memorable imagery is of the thousands of labourers involved in the construction of Hirakud Dam. The co-writer would later become the Iranian ambassador to the U.N., his brother would become prime minister before his execution in 1979, and their father was Abdol Hossein Sardari, known as the Schindler of Iran.