A River Called Titas

A film by Ritwik Ghatak

Based on a celebrated Bengali novel by Advaita Malla Barman, A River Called Titas was filmed in Ritwik Ghatak’s childhood home of East Bengal shortly after the independence of Bangladesh. Overwhelmed by the changes in his native land, Ghatak made this, his penultimate feature film, as a grim recognition of the inevitability of change and the terrible cyclical power of loss and resurrection. As Ghatak unfolds the tragic tale of a couple separated by a kidnapping, he also delivers a lyrical account of the speech, rhythms and rituals of a Malo fishing community. It is perhaps Ghatak’s most ambitious project – a raw and powerful tale of a drying river and a dying culture.