A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING Documentaries

A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING

Winner of the Best Documentary Award at Cannes, Payal Kapadia’s hypnotic feature directorial debut examines rediscovered, once lost film reels and a diary written by a student (“L”) to her absent lover at the Film & Television Institute of India. As her words are read aloud in sedate tones, her own intimate and singular experience of heartbreak reflects that of a generation of students in India experiencing intense feelings of anger, sadness and powerlessness at the injustices of the Modi government. Layered sound and black and white cinematography contrasts vividly with vibrant saturated colors, and that which is remembered or dreamed or truth or fiction is indiscernible in Kapadia’s semi-fictionalized account of political upheaval in India and the student protest movement against rising nationalism, ethnic cleansing and abuses of the lower castes. –Malin Kan

Payal Kapadia is a Mumbai-based filmmaker and artist. Her short films AFTERNOON CLOUDS (2017) and AND WHAT IS THE SUMMER SAYING (2018) premiered at the Cinéfondation and the Berlinale respectively. Her first feature, A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING, was part of the 2021 Director’s Fortnight selection at Cannes.

Wouter Jansen
Square Eyes
info@squareeyesfilm.com

Details

Country: France, India

Year: 2021

Director: Payal Kapadia

Screenwriters: Payal Kapadia, Himanshu Prajapati

Producers: Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff, Ranabir Das

Director of Photography: Ranabir Das

Editor: Ranabir Das

Running Time (minutes): 97

Languages: Hindi, Bengali

SPONSORED BY

SUPPORTED BY

LOS ANGELES FILMFORUM

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER