Everything we imagine as light (M18)

118 minutes, opens exclusively at Le Projecteur on November 14
★★★★☆

The story: Two Malayali nurses from Mumbai negotiate their daily lives in the working class. A neorealist drama by Payal Kapadia, the first Indian feature film in 30 years to be in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, has won the 2024 Grand Prix.

The conscientious head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and the young and attractive Anu (Divya Prabha) are roommates in All We Imagine As Light, as well as colleagues in a hospital maternity ward.

Prabha is troubled by the arrival in the mail of a mysterious rice cooker, presumably from her husband, who has not made any contact since he moved to Germany after their arranged marriage: is this her sign of a breakup ?

Anu, meanwhile, is secretly seeing a young Muslim man (Hridhu Haroon).

It is a story of absence in India’s most populous city, a metropolis of teeming bazaars and crowded subway cars, recorded in all its sensual textures by the impressionistic camera of Kapadia: the writer-director Indian is the documentarian behind A Night Of Knowing Nothing (2021).

It is not only the men they love who are absent or unavailable, but also women’s emotional autonomy and the warmth of home. Prabha and Anu are among the millions of anonymous economic migrants passing through.

Another is widowed hospital cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), who finds herself evicted from her apartment of 22 years to make way for a luxury condo.

Prabha and Anu accompany Parvaty to her native village on the coast, away from the urban nocturnal – the film seems to take place entirely at night – towards openness and light.

This human story of multigenerational brotherhood is too sensitive to their desires and dreams to be dark despite its awareness of social injustices and patriarchy. A surreal third act promises a fresh start, and all three actresses are superb.

Hot Take: This is definitely not your typical Bollywood production.

Red One (PG13)

123 minutes, currently showing
★★☆☆☆