After screening in the Summer Film Library, within the cycle dedicated to the best films of 2025, the second and fascinating film of the Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, The light we imagine, we complete his filmography with his first feature film, One night without knowing anything (2021), winner of the award for Best Documentary of the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes festival. It is a film essay, intimate diary mix, fiction, historical document, archive film, experimental film… impossible to fit into a label. The starting point is a set of letters that a woman writes to the man she loves, and other documents such as photos or press clippings, which may or may not be fiction. With this, the director builds an intimate story in which historical events have an impact: the marches, demonstrations and protests for freedom in various universities, police repression, the imprisonment of student leaders, among other facts of contemporary India. From intimate events to groups, from the personal to the political, from dream to reality and always from formal and aesthetic experimentation, One night without knowing anything stands as a captivating and exciting work.
12.09.26 SATURDAY / 18.00 h
13.09.26 SUNDAY / 20.00 h
One night without knowing anything
A Night of Knowing Nothing
PAYAL KAPADIA. L’India, France. 2021. VOS SPANISH. B/N i color. 95′. DCP.
Int. Bhumisuta Das.
Somewhere in India, L, a film student, she writes letters to her absent lover, K. His voice intertwines with images and fragments of scraps of life - parties, meetings, popular demonstrations— that reveal a world in shadows, traversed by radical changes. Fusing reality and fiction, the film immerses us in the fears, wishes and memories of a rebellious youth, longing for freedom.
