Set in a remote village in the high mountains of the Kumaon region in the state of Uttarakhand, Padam Singh lives with his wife Tulsi. Both in the third age of their lives and declining in health, they prop each other up like two playing cards. Their house is a stone hut, its furnishings minimal, their bed a thin mattress on the floor. Oil lamps provide their light, cooking is done on an open fire and they pee outside.

Their days are spent taking the goats out to pasture, collecting firewood, milking the cow and cooking. To pass the time, they drink and smoke, and call their neighbours round for celebrations. They sing Kumaoni folk songs and chant evocations to the gods who control their destinies. And they squabble with each other, fully accepting that they are both pretty skilled at this. Beneath it all, there is a deep tenderness borne of 60 years and more of marriage.

As Tulsi becomes unwell, neighbours are there to carry her in a rudimentary sedan chair down a long and rocky path. At the bottom, a bus runs along a grassy track. Eventually, it reaches a medical facility. The doctor will not come to them.

But time does not stand still. There is little to sustain their village in a world which has moved on – neither road, nor school, nor health provision. In ones and twos, their neighbours move away, until it is just they who remain, with only each other to depend on. The plot twists around how they each use a flicker of hope to keep the other going.

Beautifully shot, the film is full of symbolism of decline, both of the couple and of their way of life. Storms that light up the mountainous background threaten the fabric of their cottage. The roof leaks, a prop holding it up falls away and, gradually, the structure collapses. Crows call from the trees. On their arduous treks for medical help, they see pyres alight along the riverside.

Shots are framed in a way that adds poetry: the couple appear in two adjacent windows, looking and waiting. Or they clamber up to precipitous ledges, the snow-capped Himalayas behind them. The ever-present herd of goats is like another character in the film.

Poignant and evocative, the use of non-professional actors gives an authenticity that would be hard to achieve in any other way. According to the introduction at MAC, neither performer had seen a camera before, let alone a film. A little overlong, it is still compulsive viewing both for its humanity and its visual impact.

Pyre is a 2024 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by filmmaker Vinod Kapri. Padam Singh played the character Padam Singh. Tulsi was played by Heera Devi.