Filmmaker Payal Kapadia and the cast of All We Imagine As Light shone bright at the Cannes Film Festival as they took to the red carpet ahead of the film's history-making screening here.
Kapadia's feature directorial debut, which screened on Thursday night and has received glowing reviews in the international media, is the first Indian film in 30 years and the first ever by an Indian female director to be screened in the main competition of the prestigious film gala.
Kapadia and the film's cast members Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon were beaming with energy and did a little dance as they posed for the shutterbugs at the Cannes red carpet. The scene inside the Grand Theatre Lumiere, where the film had its premiere, echoed the mood outside as Payal and her team received an overwhelming welcome from the audience members.
All We Imagine as Light , a Malayalam-Hindi feature, is about Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long estranged husband that throws her life into disarray. Her younger room-mate, Anu, tries in vain to find a private spot in the big city to be alone with her boyfriend. One day the two nurses go on a road trip to a beach town where the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest, according to the plotline.
International critics have given the film a thumbs up and praised Kapadia's storytelling prowess. In his review, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian newspaper in Britain called the film 'glorious', highlighting its 'freshness and emotional clarity' as well as 'enriching humanity and gentleness', while also comparing the movie to Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar and Aranyer Din Ratri.
