A Night of Knowing Nothing is the stunning and melancholic film debut from Payal Kapadia that works as a fictional documentary about artistic freedom and political oppression.
Similar to Chantal Akerman’s film News from Home, Payal Kapadia uses the framing device of a series of found letters narrated in voice-over from a film student named L, who is attending the Film and Television Institute of India. Her estranged lover has been forced to leave the school by his parents to prevent him from dating L, who is from a different caste. L writes to her lover feeling distraught about the government appointed school chairman, a right-wing former actor.
As pressure mounts and students are disciplined, protests begin to break out demanding the replacement of the caste system with equal rights and democracy. L decides to join the peaceful protests and her letters document how Hindu Nationalists physically assaulting the protesters resulted in widespread violence across several universities. Ranabir Das’ cinematography is predominately shot in beautiful black and white with the occasional burst of color. Archival footage, newspaper clippings, home movies, and CCTV offer a variety of layered, lo-fi audiovisual references juxtaposed with text and sketches.
In the opening and conclusion of the film, students dance together which offers hope, solidarity and personal connection. While A Night of Knowing Nothing is not a character driven film, it does create a sense of mood and nostalgia of actual events that capture a film school multimedia collage.
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