PAYAL KAPADIA: ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (2024) - NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

A dreamlike Indian film that was a first at Cannes

In Competition-Grand Prix at Cannes. India's first Cannes Competition film in 30 years, says S.M Kaufman in IndieWire, 'is a sensual triumph." "Dreamlike and gentle," says Bradshaw in the Guardian, finally giving a film here 5/5 stars. The film is the story of three Mumbai hospital employees in monsoon season, two nurses and a cook, all originally from small towns, two of whom are roommates, the younger one causing scandal by having in ill-concealed Muslim boyfriend, an action on her part in rejection of arranged marriage. The eldest of the women is threatened with eviction due to an oversight of her late husband. Jessica Kiang in Variety says with just two features (this is the second, the first fiction) Kapadia "has established her rare talent for finding passages of exquisite poetry within the banal blank verse of everyday Indian life." The eldest decides to quit the hospital and go back to her home village and the other two women accompany her. DP Ranabir Das gives all sorts of light, Kiang says, a "gorgeous glamor." The portrait of the city is "unusually rich," so it's "almost a wrench" when the second half moves to the country but the new setting focuses more on the women's developed "bonds of mutual support" that burn brighter. And the Muslim boyfriend has secretly followed.

Kapadia won the documentary award at Cannes in 2021 for her film in Directors' Fortnight, A Night of Knowing Nothing. Fionnuala Halligan of Screen Daily who also uses the word "gentle" as well as for the latter part "mystical," says there's "a strong romantic streak" in the depiction of Mumbai that "calls to mind Wong Kar-wai's great love affair with the city of Hong Kong." (I can feel that too, but this world is more somber and less sophisticated.) Bradshaw notes up front a "languorous eroticism" and "something epiphanic in the later scenes and mysterious final moments." All We Imagine As Light jumped to the top of the Cannes Screen Daily jury grid with a 3.3 rating, on a par with Sean Baker's Anora. - From my vicarious remote Cannes coverage.

The film has a cumulative effect. Early on, it may seem like merely an excerpt from a daytime serial, till you notice how compelling the actors are. The deep beauty especially of Kani Kusruti as Prabha, the nurse, grows on you. It is also effective that the film is divided into the city and country segments, which takes you though a whole history of India and whole lifetimes. Through her focus on the three women hospital workers, their dreams and frustrations, young Payal Kapadia, who is still in her thirties, has pariently woven movie magic.

All We Imagine As LIght, 118 mins., debuted at Cannes May 23, 2024, winning the Grand Prix, showing afterward at many, many international festivals including the NYFF where it was screened for this review (For an oct. 7, and 8 2024 showing). US theatrical release begins mid-Nov., 2024. Metacritic rating: 93% (based on 12 critic reviews). Now. 91%.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.