Rediscovering Two Acres of Land (first screened at 3 Continents in 1984 and awarded the Cannes International Prize in 1954) in its restored version means discovering one of the founding impulses of modern Indian cinema. Bimal Roy took a unique neo-realist approach to film the dispossession of a peasant farmer reduced to begging to save his field — two bighas of land. However, the beauty of this restoration is that it revives the density of Roy’s gaze: the powdery light of Bengal, the still unknown faces of Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy, the vibration of a rural world up against the urban machine. Underlying its tale of exploitation and migration, the film captures a historic turning point – that of an independent but already inequitable India. This restoration re-establishes the moral texture of the work: a film of great clarity, where the fragile distance between dignity and survival makes itself felt. Two Acres of Land should be seen again today, not as a relic but as a conscience.
Jérôme Baron.
Restored print · French premiere
