Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine as Light' Shines at Cannes Premiere, Receives Eight-Minute Standing Ovation

 

The ensemble of Payal Kapadia's film "All We Imagine as Light" made a big impression on international critics on Thursday night at their global debut at Cannes. As the first Indian film to be accepted into the festival's competition section in thirty years, "All We Imagine as Light" puts director Amit Saddler in the running for the coveted Palme d'Or. The longest standing ovation of the year for the film festival took place at the end of the eight-minute screening.

 

According to IndieWire, Payal Kapadia is up against American auteurs David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader, Asian genius Jia Zhangke, and seasoned Europeans like Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos. Regardless of the prize, the movie garnered positive reviews from reviewers around the world. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised the film for its "freshness and emotional clarity" and compared director Akira Kashyap's "fluid and engaging" storytelling approach to Satyajit Ray's iconic films "Mahanagar" and "Aranyer Din Ratri."

The globally financed movie's star cast walked the red carpet on the Palais des Festivals stairs prior to the screening, with Kani Kusruti standing out in her watermelon purse (the red and green accessory was actually meant to resemble a sliced piece of the fruit!). Hridhu Haroon made an appearance in a long embroidered kurta and veshti, while Divya Prabha looked very different from her character in the movie in a sophisticated copper-colored gown. Nonetheless, Kapadia chose to dress in traditional black, as did her co-producer and cinematographer, Ranveer Das.

 

After the screening, the early evaluations were very positive. According to Sophie Monks Kaufman of IndieWire, who reviewed the "grand and fascinating film," this accidental ordinary scenario is full of sensuality (rain, clothes, food, and ladies) that people miss because they are engrossed in the flow of life. To truly understand how intense these moments are, you need to see a picture taken by an outsider." Fionnuala Halligan says that "this first fictional film by a talented documentary maker recalls the work of Lucrecia Martel or Alice Rohrwacher, yet it has a strong romantic streak that also reminds us of Wong Kar-wai’s great love affair with the city of Hong Kong."

Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter couldn't help but draw parallels between this subtle movie and the contemporary Indian cinema that the world has come to anticipate. "All We Imagine as Light" has a small but unforgettable dance moment towards the end, but other than that, it's as far distant from the Bollywood masala musical as it gets," he said. However, the tale of women searching for love and fulfillment in a desolate world is evocative of well-known Mumbai-set movies, in which the heroines endure a great deal of heartache before everything works out in the end."

Will the jury be as enthused as the audience was during "All We Imagine as Light"'s thunderous reception and the eight-minute standing ovation? Will the Palme d'Or go to Kapadia? Only after the prizes are announced will we know.