ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT World Cinema

Building on her lyrical docufiction essay film A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING (AFI FEST 2021), Payal Kapadia expands her feminist lens to encompass contemporary Mumbai in this ambitious yet understated sophomore feature. Centered on three nurses hailing from small hometowns, the film follows their attempts to carve out a modest living amid the hustle and bustle of this metropolitan congestion. Restrained, hardworking Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and youthful Anu (Divya Prabha) are roommates, each with their own secrets. They come to aid their friend Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) when she is driven out of her apartment by luxury property developers. At once tenderly compassionate and fervently incandescent, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT reflects on the complex realities of India’s urbanization reforms and gender politics, while charting the hope for community through sisterhood. The recipient of the Grand Prix award at Cannes and the first Indian film in 30 years to premiere in competition at the festival, Kapadia’s symphonic portrait of modern India is a revelation. –Anna Li