Critics reviews

It’s a marvel of a movie, with something of the humanist poetry of Satyajit Ray or Edward Yang. And it’s all the more remarkable given that this is Kapadia’s first fiction feature (her 2021 debut film, the documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, also picked up a prize in Cannes). What a talent.

All We Imagine As Light is a landmark film, easily the best of the year. Kapadia presents herself as a formidable talent, a distinct and extraordinary filmmaker to watch out for. Her impressionistic frames might remind of the sublime hues of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's work- in the manner in which both directors include an openness to the environment and unconventional narrative structures.

This is a poetic, poignant slice of life drama in which love is both an assertion of agency and a political act.

Kapadia’s love of cinema is apparent in every frame: Chantal Akerman’s “News from Home” is a reference point, particularly Akerman’s sense of dislocation and exile in New York City, but so is Apichatpong Weerasethakul, in whose films the boundaries of life and death dissolve, and night is a magical space where messages from other dimensions can get through.

It’s shockingly beautiful. “All We Imagine as Light” is a drama about life’s fragility, but it’s also about nurturance. That may sound as precious as a homily straight out of Sundance, but it’s just the reverse.

Each shot by Ranabir Das in this gorgeous and absorbing film has been composed to have the skin-prickling effect of a photograph taken by someone with a deep and attentive care for their subject — a photographer sufficiently removed to see clearly while still close enough to feel the thrum of a lifeforce.

Kapadia infuses a lyrical quality to even the mundane moments, although the endlessly romanticised Mumbai rains is thoughtfully turned into a frustrating hindrance to a romantic encounter. All We Imagine as Light is as much an ode to the city as it is to its outsiders, who just can’t call it home but can’t leave it too.

For Kapadia, the courageousness of “All We Imagine As Light” doesn’t feel like a second film. It already stands as an early majestic masterwork, told with incredible control and uncommon force of will.

What A Night of Knowing Nothing had in provocation and expression, All We Imagine as Light offers in contemplative thought and a restful, nurturing soul.

[I]t is refreshing to see an Indian filmmaker on the world stage explore different approaches and formal techniques so assuredly. With exquisite delicacy, Kapadia has crafted a portrait of Mumbai and its citizens that is by turns precise and impressionistic, run through with poetic realism and careful observation.

With this follow-up to A Night of Knowing Nothing... Kapadia has created an exceptional document of a city and its people. And it’s one that’s generous to its characters without condescending, as well as honest without oversimplifying.

With All We Imagine as Light Kapadia has made an astonishingly poignant and moving film – it’s a rare one that holds sadness at its core but is a treat to watch.