Days and Nights in the Forest

Among Satyajit Ray’s crowning achievements—albeit one ripe for reappreciation—Days and Nights in the Forest (NYFF8) is an astonishing, fully dimensional portrait of a generation of young Indian men yearning for a break with the tyranny of everyday life. We follow four bachelor friends as they decamp for a forest holiday in Jharkhand, during which they hope to cut loose and sow wild oats. But when the four cross paths with a local tribe, the dynamics grow ever more complicated—not least between the men themselves. Featuring some of the richest characterizations in Ray’s legendary oeuvre, Days and Nights in the Forest somewhat resembles the contemporaneous films of John Cassavetes, though Ray introduces profound elements of class and gender to the psychodramatic proceedings, arriving at a masterwork that’s entirely his own. A Janus Films release. 

Presented and restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and the Criterion Collection. Funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation. Special thanks to Wes Anderson. 4K restoration completed using the original camera and sound negative preserved by Purnima Dutta, and magnetic track preserved at the BFI National Archive. Special thanks to Sandip Ray.