Ether/Aakaash

“In the nineteen-seventies, I began a series of films about the elements: Sand (Earth), Water, Fire and Air. Now I have adventured into the kingdom of the fifth and most difficult element of all to grasp… ether. At the outset, there is neither script nor scenario. It was the same with my other films. I choose to film as an artist paints, with an empty mind so that I can accomplish an existential act.” (Viswanadhan) A woman is weaving, sorting the threads, bringing them together. Weaving a life which is intertwined with that invisible element, inseparable from matter, yet which is not matter. Inseparable from life and which persists beyond death. It is present in each of our daily gestures, in religious rituals, the most perfect works of art… In the shanty towns, people are sleeping, waking, going about their daily lives. In a market, traders and customers bargain, whilst in the taverns meals are being cooked. A procession carries a dead man to be incinerated on the river bank… Life is all around us, everywhere. And behind this life, everywhere we look we can perceive a vibration, a desire.