The River (1951)

The River is a 1951 Jean Renoir film based on a novel by Rumer Godden.

This film is online at youtube in 10 parts. part 1:

part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10

Senses of Cinema has an article. It's on Roger Ebert's list of great movies. The New York Times calls it

a blissfully sentimental and emotionally adolescent little tale, more reflective of western conventions than of the ageless culture of an eastern land.

Parallax View says,

A film of astonishing physical beauty, The River is one of the richest explorations of man’s place in the natural world ever filmed.