Payal Kapadia Explains How She Worked Around Malayalam For Her Cannes Film ‘All We Imagine As Light’

The film follows the story of two roommates who serve as nurses at a hospital. How love and self-discovery bring about a change in their perspectives forms the crux of the story.

The film is set to be screened at the Palme d'Or (main segment) of the Cannes Film Festival on May 23.

The majority of the film is in Malayalam language. Talking about how she managed to work around the language, Payal told Variety: “The language is a whole culture. It was really difficult at the beginning to understand how to work with the language, but I had a lot of support from a co-writer. I met actors who are really supportive. It was like working in a theatre where we would do the scenes like we were preparing for a play, and there was a lot of contribution from their end as well.”

She further mentioned: “And because they are Malayali, it added a lot of the context from their side. It became like an entity that I had a sight of but was growing because of many different elements, which is a nice, rewarding way to work.

As per Variety, the film is the first from India in competition at Cannes in 30 years. When asked if she feels the weight of an entire country on her shoulders, Payal said she doesn’t feel so. She thinks that people should look at things in context.”

She said: “I’m really happy to be selected. But there are various reasons why films get selected to competitions because there are factors in programming that people think about. I just think it’s sad that we didn’t have more films from India, because we make wonderful films. I hope that from now on, there’ll be many more films in competition from India. And it won’t take a 30-year gap to have one.”