Boatman

Excellent look at life on and around the Ganges at Benares, where the dead are cremated, buried or dumped, according to caste or wealth, and the living come to mourn, worship, bathe, gawp and ply their trades. Besides the non-judgmental tone, what impresses about this documentary is the way it balances the many contradictions in the teeming lives it reveals, and the way poetry is combined with wit. There's understanding here (though Rosi never pretends to be other than an outsider); the only pity is that it's not in colour.