Cannes 2024: Checkout International Reviews India's 'All We Imagine As Light'

After the historical premiere of Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, India's first film in 30 years to compete for the Palme d'Or, the highest honour of the Cannes Film Festival, international praise has poured in.

Critics from the West have hailed the film as 'gentle,' 'glowing,' and 'luminous'.

Checkout International Reviews India's 'All We Imagine As Light'

The film's portrayal of the lonesome romance of Mumbai after dark has been noted as particularly beautiful by few films, as reported by Variety.

According to The Guardian, a mood of romantic and emotional insecurity is observed to hang over the lives of the women depicted in the film, noted for unfolding in the big city where one effectively feels alone.

The story of women seeking love and happiness in a calamitous world is compared to popular Mumbai-set movies, wherein heroines endure heartbreak before eventual resolution, as stated by The Hollywood Reporter.

The hypnotic grace with which the beats of All We Imagine as Light are calibrated, inducing pure pleasure, is remarked upon, suggesting that no mystery of the human heart reveals itself until the scene that naturally brings it to the surface, as highlighted by IndieWire.

About the film

"All We Imagine as Light", a Malayalam-Hindi feature, centres around Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long-estranged husband, thus throwing her life into disarray. Her younger roommate, Anu, futilely attempts to find a private spot in the big city to be alone with her boyfriend.

One day, the two nurses embark on a road trip to a beach town where the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest, according to the plotline. An alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Payal Kapadia is best known for her acclaimed documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival's Director's Fortnight side-bar where it won the Oeil d'or (Golden Eye) award.

All We Imagine As Light marks the first-ever film by an Indian female director to be screened in the main competition of the prestigious film gala.