Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light is first Indian film in 30 years to make it to Cannes’ competition section

British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s film ‘Santosh’ has been selected for the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act, which will open the festival on May 14

Kapadia, however, is not new to Cannes. Her poetic yet powerful documentary, ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’, was the winner of Golden Eye for best documentary during the 2021 edition of Cannes Film Festival. The film, which premiered under the Director’s Fortnight section, captures the unrest on a campus through letters written by a student to her lover, merging reality with a dream-like state. Kapadia’s other acclaimed works include shorts ‘Afternoon Clouds’ (2017), which was also selected for Cannes screening, and ‘And What Is the Summer Saying?’ (2018).

An Indo-French production, All We Imagine As Light follows the story of Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long estranged husband. This causes disruption in her life. Her younger roommate, 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.

The Indian films which have been selected for Cannes’ competition section include Chetan Anand’s ‘Neecha Nagar’ (1946), V Shantaram’s ‘Amar Bhoopali’ (1952), Raj Kapoor’s ‘Awaara’ (1953), Satyajit Ray’s ‘Parash Pathar’ (1958), MS Sathyu’s ‘Garm Hava’ (1974) and Mrinal Sen’s Kharij (1983). Neecha Nagar is the only Indian film that was awarded a Palme d’Or.