ALL WE IMAGINE AS
LIGHT
In a vast, heaving Mumbai that bustles by day and glimmers
by night, two nurses — roommates by chance — form a makeshift
sisterhood. Proper, practical Prabha grieves her estranged marriage but holds
her teeming desires (and an eager suitor) at bay; youthful, sensuous Anu
cherishes secret text messages and steamy trysts with a Muslim boy. Meanwhile,
a no-nonsense neighbor whose widowhood leaves her struggling to keep her flat
recruits the two younger women to her village by the sea — where all three
find unlikely refuge in the clarity of shared wanting, if not having. (France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg,
2024, 117 mins, Malayalam & Hindi | Dir. Payal Kapadia)
CRITIC’S PICK.
“Extraordinary…A quiet drama about fragility, beauty and kinship…Set in
contemporary Mumbai, it centers on three Hindu women, their everyday lives and
the bonds that they share with one another as well as with the larger world.
It’s the kind of modestly scaled and lightly plotted international movie — with
characters who look and sound like real people, and whose waking hours are set
to the pulse of life — that can get lost amid the year-end glut of Oscar-grubbing
titles. So, it’s worth mentioning upfront that it is also flat-out wonderful,
one of finest of the year… One of the pleasures of Kapadia’s filmmaking is that
she’s inviting you to discover her characters on their terms, which means
embracing the inner and outer rhythms of their lives.” –
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
