Boatman

F Watchlist

In his debut, Gianfranco Rosi already literally practices the immersion into an environment, inspired by Direct Cinema, which has characterised his work ever since. In Varanasi, he follows the meandering of the sacred river Ganges with the boatman Gopal. Drifting along the shore, he exposes a closed world, which nonetheless opens up in all directions: wildly rocking tourist boats, dead bodies of people who could not afford a proper Hindu ritual floating in the river, spiritual baths, playing children and countless animals in and around the river. The film is a bizarre and wild depiction of this place.