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It\u2019s Lora\u2019s 4th pick: Pather Panchali, the 1955 film directed by Satyajit Ray.\nPather Panchali, which translates as \u201cSong of the Little Road,\u201d is based on the 1929 novel of the same name, which is the semi-autobiographical work of author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Satyajit Ray was a graphic designer working on illustrations for a 1944 abridged edition of the book when it was suggested to him that the stoy\u2019s depiction of rural life in the Bengali region of India would make for a good film. A few years later, as Ray became interested in making a movie, he decided to take that suggestion. After a start-stop-start production beset by funding issues, support from the regional government, as well as MoMA and filmmakers like Jean Renoir and John Huston helped to eventually push the production over the finish line. Its success was eventually sure enough that there were two sequels that, together with this film, form what\u2019s known as the \u201cApu trilogy,\u201d which when taken together follow Apu\u2019s life through adolescence and into adulthood.\nPather Panchali won Best Feature Film and Best Bengali Feature Film at India\u2019s 3rd National Film Awards. It was also honored at Cannes with the aforementioned award for Best Human Document and was nominated for or won several other critics, festival, or industry awards around the world. As for our purposes, the film has appeared in the top 10 of Sight & Sound\u2019s critics polls twice, once as a runner up in 1962 and then again at number 6 in 1992. In the 2012 polling, it was ranked #42 by critics and #48 by directors.\nProduced by Stereoactive Media