Watching: The Slow Man and His Raft

Overview

Set in rural Bengal, Pradipta Bhattacharyya’s contemplative drama about the human condition, The Slow Man and His Raft, centres on Nadhar, a motion-impaired, middle-aged man, “slower than a sloth”, who is swept into a touring circus following the death of his caregiving mother. Nadhar is something of a relic, a slow man stranded in a frantic, productive society. For those around him, his slowness can at best serve as a derisory spectacle. An expansive meditation on human nature, slowness and being profoundly out of step with the world.