The director’s highly personal perspective lifts this documentary above the usual Western tourist travelogue. In Stefano Deffenu’s film, Ananda is not the state of sublime delight of Hinduism, but a tribe of eternally joyful children who have decided to live freely. The search for this elusive tribe forms the apparent axis of this skilfully edited video diary charting a journey through India. The traveler’s searching brings back memories of a disappeared, deceased twin brother and leads him to the very “margins” of the subcontinent, where he finds the myth-shrouded village of Malana, whose inhabitants strictly avoid foreigners. Through its dexterous combination of personal reflections, observations, and memories, the film oscillates between fiction and reality.