A Night of Knowing Nothing

Regie: Payal Kapadia
Land: Indien, Frankreich

2021 | 96 min. | Hindi, Bengali
Untertitel: Englisch, Deutsch

Letters are found in a box at a film school in Mumbai. They are from film student L. to her lover K. and form the emotional framework for this exploration of untold injustices and youth activism in contemporary India. As L. reads out her letters, a situation at once specific and universal comes into being. Their relationship is intercaste and she is ultimately abandoned by K; the letters switch from being read out in Hindi to Bengali once they are no longer addressed to him. The despair of the growing political situation surrounds them.
 After several shorts, this feature-length debut announces Payal Kapadia as one of the great poetic filmmakers of today. Neither pure documentary nor fiction, her collage-like filmic textures encompass newspaper cuttings, doodles, and old footage rendered in dreamy black-and-white 16mm. Just as the film is not afraid to foreground darkness visually, silences appear as ellipses, with these absences speaking to so much with consideranle urgency. Among it all are perforations of light, the strength of the protesting students providing hope and solidarity. Ultimately the film is a devoted tribute to cinema, filmmaking, and the resilience of those dedicating their lives to it. (Michelle Carey)