130 Mins - United Kingdom 1983 Director: James Ivory Starring: Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie Cross-cutting between the 1920s and the 1980s, Merchant Ivory’s epic of self-discovery is also a lush evocation of the sensuous beauty of India. It interweaves a young Englishwoman’s journey of discovery in the present-day India with a scandalous incident of family history, set in the 1920s in the Civil Lines of a backwater Indian state. Anne, a young historical researcher, inherits letters written by her great aunt Olivia, and becomes obsessed with their revelation of an exotic and sensual past. Amid the contrasting landscapes of the Deccan, Kashmir and London, this film – high spirited and romantic – deals with both the colonial and ‘Indian’ India. HEAT & DUST was nominated for seven BAFTAs, with writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala winning Best Adapted Screenplay. She was awarded the same accolade by the London Critics Circle Film Awards. Director James Ivory was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. “HEAT & DUST stands up as an intelligent, ambitious, substantial picture.” The Guardian Read more Read less