Keswick Film Club - All We Imagine As Light

Synopsis

"As the first Indian feature invited to compete at Cannes in nearly three decades, Payal Kapadia's narrative début would be notable enough; that the movie is so delicately felt and sensuously textured is cause for outright celebration" – Justin Chang, New Yorker. Her film (which went on to win the Grand Prize at Cannes) tells the story of 3 women… and a big city.

The city is Mumbai, a bustling huge metropolis, never still, teeming with people and stories, where nothing seems permanent. The women all work at a hospital:Prabha is a senior nurse, Anu a trainee and Parvaty, a cook. Their stories are separate but interlocking.

Prabha's husband has moved to Germany and has not been heard from since. Anu is secretly in love with a Muslim boy. These two women share a flat that neither could afford alone. Parvaty is about to be evicted from her shanty house, a victim of the mass development in super-rich Mumbai. Their stories are told "in the most delicate, moving way possible. She's also about to mount a quiet, sneak attack on your soul" – David Fear, Rolling Stone. He goes on to say "It's possible to contrast those captured cityscape moments that opened the film and feel like the destination you have arrived at by the time the credits play over some local youngster dancing in the distance is a world away. But the journey to that sensation, courtesy of Kapadia's heavenly work, is far, far richer than you could have possibly imagined".