35/14
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s routine is disrupted when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate Anu tries in vain to find a place in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. Director Payal Kapadia and the cast of All We Imagine As Light come together to share the most heartwarming reactions from Cannes and more. ! The first Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. This film dramatizes many of the challenges faced by single women living in Bombay and highlights their resilience. All the women here are nurses in the same hospital, but that’s where the similarities end, as each has their own problems and, one might say, solutions. Desire, fear, regret and long-suffering patience are the emotions that alternate constantly as the story quietly unfolds. Probably the biggest asset is the script, which offers unusually rich and thought-provoking dialogue between the characters. The amount of plot action seems just enough to provide scaffolding for conversations where people have room to be unusually honest and unguarded with each other, even if they’re lying or pretending. The acting is consistently excellent and rises to the level of the writing — there are no false notes, although there are some annoying loose ends. The photography and editing are also quite good at creating a reflective and slightly detached atmosphere. The quiet intensity of the characters’ interactions. The detachment is heightened at several points where the film seems to have documentary elements or certainly creates a feeling that I wasn’t always crazy about the music and how it was pulled off, but this is a small gimmick that many may not share. I dispute another reviewer’s claim that this film was designed as “awards bait.” I think there is too much heart and honesty in this film to be labeled cynical or manipulative—certainly no more than any other film that attempts to tell an important story in a compelling and beautiful way. And this film takes a lot of risks that I can’t imagine going over well in an increasingly religious and puritanical India. I highly recommend "All We Imagine as Light."