India is one of Roberto Rossellini's most elusive masterpieces. For years, no color prints have been available, and 16mm black-and-white prints have been the only representation of this major work. So we are especially indebted to Gil Rossellini, Roberto Rossellini's son, for having secured the original negative, from which he has struck the new 35mm color print we present tonight. The print has been donated to the permanent collection of Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema, Rome. India represents a turning point in Rossellini's career away from the fiction film. Yet it has much in common with his earlier works of neorealism and particularly the films with Ingrid Bergman (Voyage in Italy, Europa '51, Stromboli). For it captures India as Rossellini saw it in 1957 and 1958--that is, at a singular and specific moment in time--in four storylike documentary episodes. And much as he had been in the earlier films, Rossellini is concerned not with the exploits but with the essential being of humans--and here, more specifically, of animals--as they function and cope with the modern world. In two of the four episodes, the unforgettable leading characters are an elephant and a monkey. Jose Luis Guarner writes in Roberto Rossellini: "There is no humorous association (with animals); the point is to show as economically as possible that the lives of animals progress in parallel with those of men and that both are deeply rooted in Nature.... Each shot in India gives rise to innumerable reverberations, which in turn inspire other shots, without ever moving from the original theme of the integration of Man and Nature.... With the flexibility and spontaneity that arise from Rossellini's remarkable gifts of observation and his ability to synthesize, small details suffice to show far-reaching repercussions.... (An) almost superhuman attempt at total synthesis brings out the internal harmony of a whole way of life whose progress is solemn and peaceful." Please note: In this unsubtitled print the voice-over narration is in Italian. However, being an almost entirely visual experience, the film is fully accessible to non-Italian speakers. In addition, a written English translation of the text will be made available.