A writer meets five widows on a train to Puri, one of them played by Sharmila Tagore. As the six lives begin to intertwine, the taboos of widowhood emerge; but so, too, does a philosophy of life and hope for the future. The performers collectively won Best Actress at India’s National Film Awards in 1964. Director Tapan Sinha creates another great film of novelistic complexity.

Watch a video guide through this year's Bengali retrospective with EIFF Programmer Mark Cousins here: