Bhowani Junction

Cukor's abiding interest in both the predicament of women in a male-dominated society and the problems of role-playing are given their most explicitly political expression in this marvellous melodrama set in India during the last gasps of British colonialism. Focusing on an Anglo-Indian girl torn apart by her feelings for three men - an English soldier, an Indian, and another Anglo-Indian - it's one of those rare films that successfully and intelligently combine personal and political issues, in that Gardner's status as a woman without a recognised racial/national idenity dramatically embodies widely conflicting cultural and political ideas. As such, it's very much an intimate epic, drawing an unsentimental portrait of a society in transition, and a vivid, moving account of its heroine's tragic dilemma. Beautiful to look at, and perfectly acted throughout.