Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, this dazzling portrait of a woman dazzled the Croisette

A modern fairy tale set in reality

Prabha (Kani Khusrout), a nurse in Mumbai, has banned herself from any sentimental life after her husband left for work in Germany. In turn, Anu (Divya Prabha), her young roommate, is secretly dating a young man she is not allowed to love. Finally, Parvati (Chhaya Kadam) has to leave everything under the pressure of developers who are transforming the city.

While in a seaside village, these three women, thwarted in their desires, finally see the hope of a new freedom.

Crowned with the prestigious Grand Prix at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, All We Imagine as Light is Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s first feature film. However, this is not the director’s first attempt: in Cannes, in 2021, he has already been awarded the Golden Eye for Best Documentary during the Cannes Cinematographers Monday for his film Tout une night, unknown.

Born in Mumbai, where she spent part of her childhood, Payal Kapadia once again showcased her abilities as a documentary filmmaker with All We Imagine as Light. Her first feature film, based in reality, deals with all the issues of contemporary and feminist social research, portraying a modesty and delicacy close to objectivity.

“I wanted to make a film about women who leave their hometown and home to work elsewherehe explains. Mumbai was the perfect setting. Another thing that interested me was its constant evolution. We are currently witnessing a real estate boom. Some neighborhoods are changing rapidly.

A large number of men who come to Mumbai for work arrive without their families and see their wives and children only once a year. So there is a sense of uncertainty. For many, this city is undoubtedly a unique opportunity, but that does not mean that life there is easy or fulfilling.“

Filmed as a character in its own right, the city of Mumbai breaks away from its role as a setting to vibrate to the rhythm of life there, created by toil, love and doubt. This almost gritty realism allows Western viewers to fully grasp all we imagine as light, discovering the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra with its authentic and lively side roads.

“We are witnessing a kind of gentrification , It’s very strange to observe when you grew up there. I wanted to show that, the speed at which the city is changing. In the opening scene, for example, we can see a wholesale market. Around 7am, when this market closes, the neighborhood changes its face to welcome the international population who have offices there. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition: on one side the markets and the remains of old factories – traces of what the neighborhood once was – and on the other, these big buildings with neon signs where business is done.“

It is against this perfectly woven background that the stories of these three women unfold.

Multiple portraits of women

Faced with their starkly opposite lifestyles, the young Anu and Prabha, her more withdrawn elder, form an explosive couple that seems to reflect all the contrasts in modern Indian society.

Prabha who plays Kani kusrutis an experienced nurse who has resigned herself to her husband’s departure, but refuses to give in to the advances of other men. His younger sister, that is, the one he plays Divya PrabhaShe is also a nurse and is dating a young Muslim man without marrying him. Both Prabha and Anu form a seemingly contradictory but ultimately complementary room.

Placing these two diametrically opposed personalities at the center of the story, a reflection of two eras, allows Payal Kapadia to portray the place of women in Indian society. “There is a contradiction that I find very interesting,” she explains, “between a sense of independence, emancipation, and even feminism, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the fact that these women remain connected, even tied to their family.” origin. Even if they achieve this emancipation, their family continues to dictate a significant part of their social behavior.

All We Imagine as Light, a multiple portrait of a woman who was actually mounted, was awarded the Cannes Jury Prize. A gem to discover in theaters this week.