A friendly street kid in India, during the last years of the nineteenth century, looks and considers himself Indian, but is in fact a Brit. The Brits discover his true origin, and train him as a spy.
Acting
Peter O'Toole's Lama: drunk on enlightenment and scenery.
Production
India locations that make you smell the dust through your screen.
Director
John Howard Davies
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ravi Sheth, who plays Kim, was actually of Indian descent—unusual for 1984 casting, though he's still playing a white character passing as Indian.
Kipling's novel was beloved as a boys' adventure classic; this adaptation arrived right as postcolonial criticism was dismantling such narratives, making its earnest tone accidentally fascinating.
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