Women on Top: Legacies of Women in Global Cinema
The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated by writer/director Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her revelatory fiction feature debut.
Anu and Prabha, roommates and coworkers, experience connection and heartache, hope and disappointment in Kapadia’s lyrically naturalistic and incandescent film. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is pursued by a courtly doctor while Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man. Kapadia captures the bustle of the metropolis and the open-air tranquility of a seaside resort with equal radiance, articulated by the superb cast. All We Imagine as Light is a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness. Winner of the Cannes Grand Prix, nominated for two Golden Globes and a BAFTA, and Sight & Sound’s Best Film of 2024. [118 min; drama; Malayalam and Hindi with English subtitles]
"One of the year’s great movies, in any form, style, or language." — Justin Chang, The New Yorker
"It’s a film that feels like a long exhale, the moment of unburdening after a tight embrace. It’s beautiful." — Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent
"This is sublime work, with poetry and prose in unerring balance, thanks to writer-director Payal Kapadia." — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
