All We Imagine as Light

The first Indian film to screen in Cannes competition in 30 years is a sensuous tale of two nurses, their romantic entanglements and a mystical trip to the coast.

Roommates Prabha and Anu, who work at the same hospital, can’t seem to catch a break. Prabha’s life is thrown into chaos when she receives an unexpected gift from her husband, who lives in Germany and hasn’t spoken to her in over a year. Meanwhile, the younger Anu tries in vain to find somewhere in the bustling city to have a clandestine tryst with her boyfriend, who is Muslim. Frustrated and feeling trapped, they decide to flee their urban environment and travel to a picturesque beach town, where a forest beckons to manifest their dreams and desires.

After winning the Cannes L’Œil d’Or for her striking debut feature, the documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing (MIFF 2022), Mumbai-based director Payal Kapadia returns with her highly anticipated fiction follow-up, which was awarded the 2024 Grand Prix at Cannes. All We Imagine as Light brims with an almost painterly attention to contextual detail, depicting moments both intimate and minute, and those with deeper political implications. Kapadia captures the hopes and dilemmas of her characters – and the irrepressible energy of her hometown – with vibrancy and poetic grace, delivering one of the year’s most assured films.

“This dreamlike and gentle modern Mumbai tale is a triumph … [with] an enriching humanity and gentleness which coexist with fervent, languorous eroticism and finally something epiphanic.” – The Guardian