In his latest feature, Gautam Ghose (Paar) turns to a classic of Bengali literature which veterans, such as Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, judged too difficult to transcribe to film. The Voyage Beyond unfolds in 1829, "ten years after the banning of sati (self-immolation of widows). But sati is not its main theme. It is rather the terribly dead, but terribly malevolent hand of ritual and age-old belief in conflict with the elemental needs of man. A dying man is brought to the banks of the Ganges for immolation but in a grotesque ceremony he is married to a young girl to fulfill astrological predictions. The girl's father has disposed of her, the priests look forward to an ensuing sati as an act of defiance against the British. Only the low-caste pyre-builder revolts against the barbarity...." (Igbal Masood, Int'l Film Guide) In the fashion of a Greek tragedy, Ghose situates his doomed players amidst the desolate mud and immense open sky of this stygian shore where the primal emotions of love, hate and sexual jealousy inevitably overwhelm their victims. With The Voyage Beyond, the former experimental and documentary filmmaker "displays his immense gifts...As a writer, cameraman, music composer and director, he is in total command of the medium." (Karen Margolis, Berlin)