The 4K restored version of Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri, which premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival last month, is set to be screened at Il Cinema Ritrovato later this month, the Film Heritage Foundation announced on Wednesday.
The annual festival held in Bologna, Italy, is dedicated to screening restored classics, rare early films, retrospectives, silent works with live scores.
“The newly restored version of Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece “Aranyer Din Ratri” (Days and Nights in the Forest, 1970) travels to the Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy,” Film Heritage Foundation posted on X.
Adapted from Bengali author Sunil Gangopadhyay’s eponymous novel, the film follows a group of urban men from Calcutta — played by Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja, and Rabi Ghosh — as they head out for a weekend in the wilderness. Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose and Simi Garewal were also part of the ensemble.
The Cannes screening of the restored classic was attended by Tagore and Garewal, the only living members of the cast. Filmmaker Wes Anderson and Purnima Dutta, the head of Piyali Films and producer of Aranyer Din Ratri, also attended the screening.
Aranyer Din Ratri was nominated for Best Film at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival in 1970. A sequel, Abar Aranye, directed by Goutam Ghose, was released in 2003. The film continued the story of the four friends and their families who return to the wilderness.
The 2025 edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato will be held from June 21 to June 29.
