All We Imagine as Light

Noch ehe man in dem halbdokumentarischen Prolog des nächtlichen Mumbai die spätere Hauptfigur ausmachen kann, gibt das Stimmengewirr auf den regennassen Straßen zu erkennen, dass es hier immer auch um die Angst der prekär Zugezogenen geht, nie wirklich anzukommen. Es ist ein unendlich sanft funkelnder, bittersüßer Blick, den der Film auf die beiden sehr unterschiedlichen Krankenschwestern wirft, die sich eine Wohnung teilen. Prächtige Symphonie einer Großstadt und zugleich subtile Charakterstudie weiblicher Solidarität, in die sich subversiv die großen Themen der indischen Gesellschaft einnisten: religiöse Spannungen, Immobilienspekulation, überkommene Geschlechterrollen. (Stephan Settele)

Mumbai has long been a city of celluloid dreams and nightmares, but Payal Kapadia mines the Indian metropolis for shimmering new cinematic visions in ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, which earned the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The intimate lives of three women, all employees at a hospital, unfurl in the city’s perennially lucent night. Middle-aged nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) yearns for her husband, who left to work in Germany years ago, while shyly indulging the polite advances of a doctor; the younger Anu (Divya Prabha) is caught up in a passionate but verboten romance with a Muslim lover; and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a cleaning lady approaching retirement, finally gives up on her ongoing battle against eviction and decides to move back to her coastal hometown. Woven together with textured scenes of Mumbai’s bustle and anonymous testimonies from the city’s residents that are delivered in various languages, the three women’s stories coalesce into an extraordinarily delicate portrait of urban life, where desire and danger, solitude and sorority form a heady mix. (Devika Girish)

Payal Kapadia: WATERMELON, FISH AND HALF GHOST (2014, K), AFTERNOON CLOUDS (2015, K), THE LAST MANGO BEFORE THE MONSOON (2017, K), AND WHAT IS THE SUMMER SAYING (2018, K), A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING (2021)