All We Imagine as Light

Crafted with visual poetry and emotional empathy, this Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner from MVFF Mind the Gap Award honoree Payal Kapadia shines a light on three nurses as they negotiate love and life in the teeming metropolis of Mumbai. Prabha has a husband living overseas, her younger roommate, Anu, is carrying on a secret relationship with a Muslim boy, and Parvati plans to leave the big city after her husband dies. Without the support of men, these women forge bonds of mutual support while dispensing much-needed information and advice to their female patients. Cinematographer Ranabir Das tracks their days from work to home with a shimmering beauty, especially in the nighttime scenes. As the film moves from city to country in its second half, the women’s relationships shift and deepen, and Kapadia finds the small but wondrous epiphanies in everyday lives.