STILL, THE CHILDREN ARE HERE
[] (Three stars)
THE Garos people of northeast India live much the way their ancestors did 6,000 years ago, isolated from the fast-paced modern world.
They take life easy, harvesting rice and building houses from bamboo and thatch. No cars, no cell phones, no 9-to-5 office jobs. Not even electricity, although they wouldn’t object to it.
But before you pack your bags and jet to India in search of this seeming paradise, take a look at “Still, the Children Are Here.”
The documentary, directed by Dinaz Stafford and produced by Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding”), shows that the simple life has not spared the Garos the day-in and day-out woes that afflict most of humanity.
A young wife and mother wonders what her good-looking husband is up to when he stays away from home for days on end. A husband complains he doesn’t make enough to support his family.
A childless man and woman mourn their only child, a girl who died several years earlier.
“Husband and wife, alone in life, forever,” the man laments.
As the natives clear the lush forest and burn the trees, they discover they are getting poorer.
Says one elderly woman: “Times are different. Man is different.”
Who knows where these proud, self-sufficient people will be in a decade?
Running time: 85 minutes. Not rated (nothing objectional). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue. Through Tuesday.