Boatman

The documentary takes place on the Ganges. The director sets out on a journey along the river. The boat is steered by a boatman called Gopal. The camera looks at the life on the banks. People go into the water and wash. Some are working and some sit and meditate. Tourists move through the same waters. The film goes forward in small portraits. Nobody is made to explain anything. The river is the place of daily life and of death alike. The farewells to the dead are given on the bank as well. Birth and death sit inside the same water. This is the director’s first film. The boatman Gopal Maji appears in the fifty five minute documentary, an Italian production Gianfranco Rosi finished in 1994.