The other side of Hampi

An intimate portrait of life in rural India.
Shot at Shankar Reddy's buffalo farm in Hampi, Karnataka, in 2011-2012.
On the other side of the river from the ruins of the ancient city of Hampi, history remains alive in the fields and the farms. The same tools and processes that have worked for centuries remain in use. The same animals, same rice, peanuts and coconuts grown and cooked the way they always have been.
As the country embraces technological progress, the 72% of India's population lives in rural areas. They walk barefoot on grass, mud, stone and dust. They eat their food gazing at the fields where they grew it. They drink their chai with the milk they got with their own hands. They are the keepers of a way of life so close to nature and so alien for city dwellers that to witness it has the taste of a fragile privilege.
Filmed and edited by Cristina Saez
(c) Cristina Saez 2012
www.cristina-saez.com