Every day, the world over, we feel these things because we’re human: Longing. Peace, where we can find it. Belonging. Loneliness, sometimes. Unsteadiness in an ever-expiring present tense. If we’re city dwellers in a great urban center that feeds millions while starving millions more,

Amid the heady haze, unrelenting traffic, and humidity of the city of Mumbai, three complex women sit at the core of Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. Written and directed by the Mumbai-based A Night of Knowing Nothing filmmaker in her first fiction feature,

This enveloping drama, which centers two women in Mumbai, is about solidarity between women, about making ends meeting, and about how a populous city can feel like the loneliest place in the world.

In Payal Kapadia’s extraordinary drama, three women in Mumbai search for connections amid the city’s vibrant and darkly alienating churn.

A delicate, lyrical drama of sisterhood echoing through the sights and sounds of modern India, All We Imagine As Light cements Payal Kapadia as a major voice.

“All We Imagine as Light,” in theaters Friday, has been widely celebrated since its Cannes premiere, and Kapadia heralded as a major new talent to watch, which is just as it should be. The film is a reminder of the transcendent power of cinema, even, and perhaps especially, when not all that much is happening.

The reality of Mumbai is much more complex – the ‘city of dreams’ is made up of infinite pockets of people trying to make this city their home even as its relentless ‘speed’ makes it difficult for roots to form.

Writer-director Payal Kapadia’s vibrant drama follows two nurses who share an apartment in the Indian city.

Payal Kapadia’s drama of women’s solidarity, a major prize-winner at Cannes, pays radiant homage to a city and its people.

“All We Imagine as Light is a hopeful story about sisterhood, keeping the dying hope alive, and finding peace with the reality that is present versus holding on to a burnt-out wick of dreams.” A fourth hidden character would be the city of Mumbai ...