All We Imagine as Light

<p>Prabha and Anu are nurses living together in . Prabha is straitlaced and upright, and yearns for her husband who lives in and only came to once for a short with her, but has not called her in over a year. Anu is more outgoing and is having a secret affair with a man named Shiaz. One day, Prabha and Anu receive a modern from an unknown sender; the cooker is made in Germany. A doctor, Manoj, tries to seduce Prabha, but she rejects his advances, claiming her . Prabha tries to help Parvaty, the cook at their hospital, fight against a greedy who wants to demolish her to build a skyscraper. Unable to claim legal , Parvaty decides to quit her job and move back to her village near . Prabha and Anu travel with her, to help her relocate. Unbeknownst to Prabha and Parvaty, Shiaz has followed Anu. They secretly meet up, which Prabha discovers. Later they have sex. Meanwhile, Prabha rescues a middle-aged man from drowning by performing . While he is waiting for the local doctor, Prabha cleans and cares for him. She begins having a conversation with him, transforming him into her husband. He apologises for abandoning her and seeks her forgiveness, but she tells him that she does not want to see him ever again. That night, at a , Prabha asks a surprised Anu to invite Shiaz to sit with herself and Parvaty. They all chat happily, as the lights of the shack shine over them. The film was produced by Thomas Hakim and Julian Graff through their French-based company Petit Chaos, in co-production with the Indian companies Chalk & Cheese and Another Birth, as well as by the Netherlands’s BALDR Film, Luxembourg’s Les Films Fauves, Italy’s Pulpa Films and France’s . Hakim first met Kapadia at the in 2018. This was the first feature film produced by Chalk & Cheese, which previously produced commercials for nine years. Kapadia used money from the grant and to reside in Europe in order to plan the film production with Hakim. Financing for the film was obtained from , , , Condor, , Gan Foundation, Hubert Bals Fund, Luxbox, Pulpa Film, and Visions Sud Est. Filming was done in over the course of twenty-five days and then in for fifteen days. was selected to compete for the at the , where it had its world premiere on 23 May, and received an eight minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. This is the first film from India to compete in the main competition at Cannes since in 1994, and Kapadia is the first Indian female filmmaker to do so. It won the , becoming the first Indian film to do so. On 9 September 2024, it was announced that Spirit Media, founded by Indian actor , had acquired Indian distribution rights to the film. Spirit Media announced that the film would begin its Oscar-qualifying release with a limited theatrical release in Kerala starting on 21 September under the Malayalam title ‘പ്രഭയായ് നിനച്ചതെല്ലാം’ i.e. . The film was selected as the opening film for the , and was released theatrically in India on 22 November 2024. and distribution partner Sideshow acquired the North American rights for the film on 20 May 2024, and released the film on 15 November 2024 in New York and Los Angeles, with a nationwide expansion planned. The film was also played at the on 5 September 2024. It was released in France by Condor Distribution on 2 October 2024. It was featured in the accolades section of the , and Limelight section of the screened on 30 January 2025. The film made it’s digital release through from 3 January 2025. On the website , of 146 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website’s consensus reads: “Capturing the here and now of modern India with the spontaneity of a candid photograph, is a lustrous achievement that announces Payal Kapadia as an essential filmmaker.” , which uses a , assigned the film a score of 94 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”. On , the film received an average rating of 3.8 out of 5, based on 31 reviews from French critics. , writing in , gave the film five stars and praised it as an “absorbing story of three nurses that is full of humanity”. Nicholas Barber, writing in the , also gave the film five stars. The British film magazine named it the best film of 2024 in its poll of over 100 critics worldwide. It was also ranked 1st in the Best Movies of 2024 list from , with writing that Kapadia “incorporates images of everyday people milling through the city, images that connect her characters to a sea of humanity and, by extension, to those of us watching.” The film was ranked 5th among the top 25 European works of 2024 by the journalists at . Filmmakers , , , , , and cited the film among their favorite films of 2024. In June 2025, ranked the film at number 58 on its list of “The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far).” For the , was not selected to be submitted by either France or India, with the former submitting and the latter submitting The film had been shortlisted for France’s submission. The decision to not submit the film was unexpected, with Diaa Hadid remarking that the film’s international reception had “garnered raised hopes that India might finally have a serious contender for an Oscar in the best foreign film category”. Many like Naman Ramachandran of drew comparisons to India’s decision to not select (2013) and (2022) for its Academy Awards submissions, particularly in light of the film’s success at the with it having won the Grand Jury Prize. At the initial news announcing the selection of , FFI president Ravi Kottarakara explained ‘s exclusion, saying “The jury said that they were watching a European film taking place in India, not an Indian film taking place in India.” Justifying its selection, the FFI noted on “Indian women are a strange mixture of submission and dominance. Well-defined, powerful characters in one world, a Laapataa Ladies (Hindi) captures this diversity perfectly, though in a semi-idyllic world and in a tongue-in-cheek way.” Kapadia responded to the controversy by expressing her appreciation for Kiran Rao’s works, saying to “I just think it’s really great that there are two films from India that are doing this well, and they’re both by women.” On December 17, the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences released its shortlist for a variety of categories, including best , and India’s selection ( ) was not selected, triggering a renewed discussion on the decision to “snub” the film. Industry figures like director and publicly voiced their discontent with the FFI’s decision to not send , with the former sarcastically remarking “Film Federation of India does it again! Their strike rate and selection of films year after year is impeccable.” In light of the renewed controversy following the release of the Academy Award shortlist, , the head of the 13-member all-male jury remarked to the that people ought to be “respectful of the process”. Elaborating on the decision to not consider , Barua said “The jury felt that her film was very poor technically.”</p>