I For India
a SANDHYA SURI picture
Synopsis
In 1965 Yash Pal Suri left India for the UK. The first thing he does on his arrival in England is to buy two Super 8 cameras, two projectors and two reel to reel recorders. One set of equipment he sends to his family in India, the other he keeps for himself. For forty years he uses it to share his new life abroad with those back home – images of snow, miniskirted ladies dancing bare-legged, the first trip to an English supermarket – his taped thoughts and observations providing a unique chronicle of the eccentricities of his new English hosts. Back in India, his relatives in turn, respond with their own “cine-letters” telling tales of weddings, festivals and village life. A bittersweet time capsule of alienation, discovery, racism and belonging, I for India is a chronicle of immigration in sixties Britain and beyond, seen through the eyes of one Asian family and their movie camera.
Stills
Press
"An intimate and rewarding documentary… Unbearably moving."
VARIETY
"A miraculous mini-epic…terrifically warm, watchable film-making."
THE GUARDIAN
"Sandhya Suri strikes humanist gold in her feature-filmmaking debut…one of the richest documentaries of the year."
VILLAGE VOICE
"A movie that’s both deeply personal and surprisingly universal."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Throughout Suri has managed to weave together the personal and the bigger picture with tact, empathy and adeptness, creating a profound and profoundly moving film that any director could be proud of; as a debut, it’s formidably accomplished."
SIGHT AND SOUND
"A remarkable meditation on the agonies and enigmas of migration."
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
"A compelling piece of social history that is also a deeply moving domestic melodrama."
EMPIRE
"A fascinating, heartrending, beautifully compiled glimpse into one expatriate family’s filmed self-portrait."
FILM FOUR
"Delightful…seductive…a lovely and thoughtful film."
TIME OUT
"A picture of cultural displacement and Anglo-Indian rapprochement almost worthy of EM Forster…warm, insightful and tragicomic."
FINANCIAL TIMES
"A cinematic journal spun tight with drama and intrigue…a rare and precious insight into the immigrant experience."
BBC
"Emotionally gripping, smartly crafted and affecting."
INDIEWIRE
"Penetrating and powerful."
TOTAL FILM
"A ravishing film-on-film commentary."
SLANT
Festivals
& Awards
Sundance International Film Festival
Zagreb Film Festival
Best Documentary
Asian First Film Festival
Swarovski Trophy
Newport Beach International Film Festival
Festival Stranger than Fiction (Dublin)
Tongues on Fire Film Festival (London)
Seattle International Film Festival
Los Angeles International Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival
Cast & Crew
| Yash Pal Suri |
|---|
| Director | Sandhya Suri |
|---|---|
| Story development | Nicolas Chaudeurge |
| Producer | Carlo Cresto-Dina |
| Associate Producers | Thomas Kufus, Kai Künnemann |
| Cinematographers | Sandhya Suri, Lars Lenski |
| Editors | Cinzia Baldessari, Brian Tagg |
| Sound | Christine Felce |
