“TWO: A Film Fable” (1965) by Satyajit Ray

Esso, an American oil company, had asked Satyajit Ray to make a short film in the English language with a Bengali setting. This was back in 1964 when the Vietnam War was at its peak. What came out of this encounter became ‘TWO: A Film Fable’, a piece of visual poetry that offers a nuanced commentary on consumerism, caste, class and the futility of war. The brilliance of Ray is that all of this happens through only two characters, no spoken dialogue and in just twelve minutes.

We have the Academy Film Archive to thank for preserving this film, and for making it available on their YouTube channel.