A moment from No One Writes To The Colonel; (below) Arturo Ripstein with wife Paz Alicia Garciadiego. Picture by Aranya Sen

He is the greatest Mexican to visit Calcutta after Octavio Paz in the 1960s? ,? gushes Sanjoy Mukherjee of Roopkala Kendra but the acclaimed film-maker Arturo Ripstein laughingly brushes off the compliment. In town with wife Paz Alicia Garciadiego (an award-winning scriptwriter), Ripstein admits that so far Calcutta has only been ?a hotel, a car and a film school? for him. But he is happy to be in the city of Ray, whom he remembers meeting during a screening of Charulata. ?I was a young beginner of 21 or so and I had seen the Apu Trilogy so I just couldn?t help hugging him and telling him how much I liked his work, while Ray just looked totally bewildered,? recalls Ripstein.

His father, a film producer, wanting his son to be ?decent? had put him through law school. But by 19 Ripstein had taught himself the basics of film-making and assisted in Bunuel?s Exterminating Angel. Looking back, Ripstein admits it was one of the greatest experiences of his life. Bunuel, for him, was ?one of the greatest creative forces of the 20th century, a man of many facets... the five or six good films he made are such that it becomes unnecessary to remember the rest?. Bunuel, he adds, was the ?only foreigner who understood Mexico, which is like India, visually so formidable that you might end up only scratching the surface?.

Ripstein?s first independent film was A Time to Die based on the Gabriel Garcia Marquez book. ?Marquez was 30-something with two books in print but still largely unknown,? recalls the director. ?He was writing ads for an agency and dreaming of becoming a film-maker. He had even had two of his short stories filmed. But afterwards he concentrated more on writing and his greatness increased, as did my envy,? laughs Ripstein. In 1999, he returned to Marquez?s No One Writes To The Colonel, a Cannes entry starring Salma Hayek.

Ripstein is one of the few directors to stand out from the makers of commercial films or churros (named after a Mexican street confectionery with very little food value). Ripstein agrees that there are more tech-savvy people in films now but ?everyone wants to go to Hollywood or be a part of Hollywood.?

Film-makers like him have to depend on government aid, which is around 40 to 50 per cent. Yet Ripstein has behind him a string of great films like Hell Without Limits, The Woman of the Port, The Ruination of Men and Such is Life (being screened at Nandan on Friday).

He also has made several documentaries. His latest project is Carnival of Sodom, a film based on a Dominican novel. ?The title is something but not the film, it has all these characters in a brothel but they do nothing but talk,? smiles the director.

The film, like the rest of Ripstein?s work, has been shot on DV and transferred on 35mm because he ?can?t bear to find them, 20 years later, all broken and scratched?.

Striving to make good films ?can be rather lonely and difficult?, it is still ?something worth living for?, stresses Ripstein.