The first Indian film in the Cannes Film Festival competition in 30 years, “All We Imagine As Light”, has received an eight minutes standing ovation. The movie by Payal Kapadia left the international audiences impressed during its world premiere at film festival on Thursday.
Notably, the movie scripted history at the Cannes. ‘All We Imagine…’ is the first Indian movie in 30 years to qualify for the festival’s competition section, which made Kapadia a contender for the prestigious Palme d’Or. The eight-minute standing ovation at the end of the film’s screening was among the longest of this edition of the film festival.
With this success, Kapadia is in competition with “European heavyweights such as Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos, American auteurs David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader, and Asian visionary Jia Zhangke.”
Before the screening, the internationally funded film’s star cast adorned the red carpet on the steps of the Palais du Festival, with Kani Kusruti standing out with her watermelon clutch; Divya Prabha looking a world apart from her character in the film in her classy copper-hued gown; and Hridu Haroon appearing in a veshti and long embellished kurta. Kapadia and her co-producer and cinematographer, Ranabir Das, however, settled for formal blacks.
The early reviews to pour in after the screening were glowing. In her review of the ‘gorgeous and absorbing film’, Sophie Monk-Kaufman of IndieWire wrote: This casual everyday vignette is brimming with a sensuality that people don’t tend to notice when caught up in the rhythm of life. It takes a snapshot from a photographer removed from the situation to make you realise how full these moments are.”