QCinema which runs until 17 November, features some of the best foreign films in its lineup. Here’s a review of two Cannes winners: Anora and All We Imagine As Light.

ANORA (2024)

Anora, easily the best film I’ve seen this year, is exactly what you crave in a cinematic experience—uninhibited, wholly entertaining, yet firmly grounded in reality. Sean Baker, known for his indies that focus on the marginalized, especially sex workers, crafts a comedic anti-fairytale that won this year’s Palme d’Or, with clarity and a deep understanding of the mind and heart.

Baker takes us on a rollercoaster, pulling us deep into the film’s universe before letting us go with its heart-wrenching ending. With a superb ensemble cast led by the utterly brilliant Mikey Madison in the titular role, Baker’s creative freedom is in full force, marrying romantic comedy and gangster screwball, with a lot of heart and soul.

Madison’s Anora, a richly drawn sex worker who goes by Ani, stumbles into a Cinderella story when, on an otherwise ordinary night at a gentlemen’s club, she meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) — a young client and son of a Russian billionaire, barely a man. The boy’s obscene wealth signals the family’s likely mafia ties, adding an exciting layer to the story.

Baker handles prostitution and mafia life—two worlds that easily pique curiosity — with sensitivity. His compassion for his characters shines through, making it difficult to judge any of them.

Madison is a sassier, edgier Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman.” She gives her Ani a magnetic personality — but the best moments are when her vulnerability slips through her tough exterior. She has us rooting for her throughout, and as Ani falls for Vanya, you know heartbreak is coming, and you brace for the impact.

Despite her hustling skills and the nature of her work, Ani is still innocent and naive, no different from Vanya. Both are just kids trying to escape their worlds. Their sex scenes are graphic but brief, never gratuitous and serve a purpose. Scenes of hedonism mixed with youthful arrogance aren’t romanticized but instead serve as a case study of spoiled billionaire brats and lonely young people.

The humor builds throughout, leading to a screwball second half involving a colorful trio of mafiosi: the hilarious Karren Karagulian as Catholic priest-slash-capo Toros, henchman Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and a hot associate, Igor (Yuriv Borisov).

Baker’s emotional visual style, captured by DP Drew Daniels, beautifully balances handheld shots with steady camera work, which heightens the film’s sense of reality.

Combined with overlapping dialogue, the deeply layered characters come alive, drawing viewers further into their world.

This depth is what makes Anora a diamond in the rough. Unpretentious and unpreachy, it invites the audience to embrace the humanity of these flawed characters.

5 out of 5 stars

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (2024)

This year’s Cannes Grand Prix winner is a lush, evocative slow-burn that delves into the loneliness and yearning of female nurses.

Payal Kapadia’s sophomore feature feels more like an abstract expression of female desire — emotional, sexual, and political — than a straightforward narrative. The film is more poetic than plot-driven, as we dive into the psyche of its main characters through wordless, expressive scenes.

Hospital workers Prabha (Kani Kusruti), whose husband ghosted her, and Anu (Divya Prabha), who has a forbidden Muslim lover, are joined by the supporting character Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), who fights to hold on to her tenement residence.

Kapadia takes a confidently leisurely pace with her storytelling, drawing us into its dreamlike aesthetics, which somewhat recall Mati Diop’s Atlantics.

In a city like Mumbai, where feelings are displaced and lives are untethered, we sense an undertow of unease in her characters’ lives.

She blends authentic, restrained performances from her ensemble cast with a painterly depiction of Mumbai. Her version of the city is a character in itself — breathing, glinting in the night.

Ranabir Das’s cinematography, dominated by shades of blue, adds an ethereal quality to the film, infused with a sense of depersonalization. The exquisite, textured look feels as though a veil has covered the entire film, perfectly mirroring the characters’ disconnected relationship with Mumbai, as well as their religious and cultural backgrounds. Hazy, twinkling windows of buildings glitter in the Mumbai nightscape — a large, busy city that conceals countless stories of pain and survival. How will these women find closure? How can they resolve predicaments that feel like wounds that won’t heal? As the trio of women journey to a seaside village, where the waves seem to calm the soul, we await the restorative power of time to bring harmony to their inner chaos.

4 out of 5 stars

Both films are part of the ongoing QCinema Film Festival.