PedroPires90

This is going to sound like prejudice - and maybe it is - but I never called a documentary a masterpiece. Until today.

Payal Kapadia takes a concept seemingly so simple - a few lost letters for a lost love - to give us one of the most necessary, radical, and artistically superior documents I've ever seen.

If All We Imagine as Light is my favorite film of 2024, then A Night of Knowing Nothing is my favorite documentary ever. Several times I cried, several times I had to take a deep breath and exhale forcefully, several times I felt my heartbeat quicken.

It is revolting, it is sad, it is terrifying (so terrifying that I often found myself wondering what Kapadia could do with a horror film). There is also a bit of hope. Kapadia has an activist and radical side that resembles some student political movements from past decades. I must confess that I have lost that optimism. Right now, I truly believe that hatred has won, and when hatred triumphs over hope, there is no reason to be optimistic. I keep fighting, yes, but I feel that the time to build a different, fairer, more peaceful, more equal world is behind us. We had that opportunity in history, and we squandered it.

Technically, what is achieved in terms of sound, image, and how everything is articulated so dynamically, so beautifully, and so hauntingly is absolutely brilliant. Bhumisuta Das's narration is also impeccable, perfect, making us feel everything behind those words.

I don't have much more to say. This film should be more than mandatory in any arts and politics course around the world. Incredible.

The way this film (and the script) evolves from something seemingly harmless and without much room to grow is fascinating. One of the most beautiful stories I've ever seen on screen.

So calm, so sweet, so melodious, yet so sad, so melancholic. That's what memories do to us - they make us feel again, and there are memories that, when revisited, bring doubts and certainties we didn't have before. New perspectives and new "what ifs" that will forever remain unanswered.

Was this really Shunji Iwai's debut? Incredible. So delicate in the way he places everything on screen, so meticulous in how he builds these characters and gradually adds layers to them. RIP Miho Nakayama - I wasn't aware of how good you were on acting. Incredible dual role. Everything so good and so beautiful. Of course, the third act was a sea of tears.

Probably the most courageous film of the year, and a movie that will hardly fail to bring tears to the eyes of those who watch it. Ideological and religious blindness supplants basic human values. The seed has been planted, and while many lives may still be lost along the way, the new generations will make sure to carry the torch.

What is fictional intertwines with reality in a very organic way, and Rasoulof does another great film, his best to date - with a very interesting touch of a paranoid thriller. Perhaps his last film on Iranian soil? It doesn't matter - the seeds he is planting are everything, and the message will reach its audience.

PS: At a time people are talking of Ariana Grande or Zoe Saldaña winning an Oscar, it's hard not to feel pity for what Hollywood, the Academy, and American audiences in general have become. This film alone features at least two supporting performances far superior. Mahsa Rostami, the star you will be!