The Reel Deal

A drama of sisterhood is the first Indian film to win the Grand Prix at Cannes and puts the spotlight on independent films in the country

- Pushpita Dhar

At the 70th Cannes Film Festival in 2017, India’s sole official selection was a 13-minute-long film titled Afternoon Clouds. The short had been conceptualised as a studio exercise by Payal Kapadia, a graduate student of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

In 2021, Kapadia, no longer a student, returned to Cannes with A Night of Knowing Nothing, which won the Golden Eye documentary prize. Kapadia’s third time at Cannes in 2024 worked a different charm— her feature debut All We Imagine as Light that explores the lives of three women in Mumbai—was awarded the Grand Prix, the festival’s second-highest prize.

The film is a lot of firsts: Kapadia is the first Indian filmmaker to win the award at the festival. All We Imagine As Light is also the first Indian film in 30 years and the first by an Indian female director to be showcased in the main competition.

Playing with Form

In the world of Indian cinema, films such as Kapadia’s are independent, outside mainstream offerings. Mixing fictional elements with non-fiction was an idea born in film school. For instance, A Night of Knowing Nothing is decidedly non-fiction in its use of archival footage—it documents the student protests at FTII in 2015—but it weaves in elements of fiction through the protagonist, who is a fictional university student who recounts what happens in her life.