‘All We Imagine As Light’ Review: Payal Kapadia’s Poetic Meditation On Life In Urban Mumbai – Cannes Film Festival
deadline.comOf the many films set in India that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Payal Kapadia’s feature debut is the only one to focus on the country and its character, which it does by focusing on its most populated city, Mumbai.
Like London, Paris and New York, Mumbai is a city of contrasts, a melting pot of castes and races, but of its 12.5 million citizens, over half are likely to live in extreme poverty.
All We Imagine as Light tells the stories of the people on the breadline, those who are just about getting by, trying to hold onto their homes and their dignity as the city’s wealthy elite buy up and bulldoze their properties.
Kapadia’s documentary background is clear from the outset, a series of tracking shots through a bustling city market. All the workers are migrants, from villages far and wide, and while their weathered faces pass by, we hear their (real and clearly unscripted) thoughts. “I didn’t realize so much time had passed.
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