For Gotham cinephiles, the New York Film Festival has its annual launch on the last Friday of September (the 2024 edition runs Sept. 27-Oct. 13). For critics, journalists and certain industry folks, though, the event begins a couple of weeks earlier, when festival press screenings commence at Lincoln Center. Those screenings don’t display films in … Read more
Payal Kapadia was one of the most exciting names announced for this year’s competition. Her debut feature, “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” which screened in Directors’ Fortnight three years ago, was a distinctive, politically charged hybrid film that melded documentary and archival footage with a fictitious voice-over to reflect on student protests and casteism in … Read more
You mentioned earlier that the leaves of the fig trees are so big they block out the sun. But there is still so much light in this film. Can you talk a bit about working with your cinematographer to capture that naturalistic light? I think our countries have so much light. That’s what you don’t … Read more
Ranging in age and skillfulness, the underpaid and overworked group labors with strict instructions to carefully handle the branches—breaking one is a cardinal offense—and to avoid picking unripe figs or crushing them during sorting. Their young, but no less exploitative boss Saber (Fedi Ben Achour) supervises with punishing, hawk-like ferocity. Tight on their sun-drenched visages, … Read more