A magical movie about the magic of cinema

The father raises his index finger. This is the first and last time he will see a movie, says Babuji (Deppen Raval) to his son. The man who sells tea to passengers at a train station in the Indian province of Gujarat and can feed his family with it is not a fan of cinema.

In his opinion, movies are dirty entertainment and unworthy of a devout Hindu. But a religious development movie is being shown in the neighboring town, so the family ban was suspended for one night. When nine-year-old Samay (Bhavin Rabari) sees the Hindu Bollywood musical on screen with its flashy colours, extra dancing, and imposing gods masks, it’s all covered. For a boy from a poor class, a world opens up in the dark cinema hall beyond everything he saw in his short childhood.

From then on, Samay would do anything to sneak into the cinema after or during school – whether it was with money stolen from a father’s tea box or through the back door of the cinema. But the owner soon finds out about him and prevents him from entering the house.

The lunch box that his mom fills with delicious dishes every day becomes a lifesaver for young movie fans. Its scent fills the nostrils of a man who turns out to be a casual. Since Fazl (Bhavish Shrimali) loves good food just as Samay loves cinema, the two make a deal: the boy gives up his lunch in exchange for being able to watch all the movies through the small window in the projector room.

Anyone who now thinks of Giuseppe Tornator’s cinematic classic “Cinema Paradiso” (1988) is not entirely wrong. Like Tornatore, Indian director Pan Nalin goes back to childhood and the origins of his love for cinema in The Light That Dreams Made Of. But his film is much more than a flashback for self-confessed movie fans.

Peephole in the show room

Director Nalin (“7 Goddesses”) delves into memory to discover more deeply the nature and magic of cinema. His native India is the perfect place for that. Cinema is rarely celebrated in any other country as a collective experience.

For nine-year-old Sammy, it is love at first sight, which he cannot and does not want to resist. For him, the small peephole in the show room becomes a window into a world of limitless possibilities and vast imagination.

And the boy has an imagination. The matchbox bag he spills in front of his friends is enough to inspire him. On the chests are images of balloons, cars, pistols, princes and princesses, which Sami puts side by side and combines to create an exciting story. He wraps one of his friends in the meadow with a bicycle handle in his hands and leaves the others perched around him in green branches. By sectioning the photos in a small cardboard box, the boy appears to be roaring through the countryside on a motorbike.

The most beautiful lies

“Movies were invented to deceive people,” director Fadl tells the boy, which is what spurs Sami to want to know all about this deception technique. Together with his friends, he forms a kind of cinematic cult. With colorful streaks of celluloid over their eyes, they zip through the countryside.

Eventually they broke into the station’s warehouse where film rolls are kept for movie theaters in the area. They built a projector out of bicycle tires, a pedal from a sewing machine and a fan, and set up their own cinema in an abandoned ghost village. Sunlight from outside is directed by the mirror through a magnifying glass into the darkroom. Children sit inside and use wooden blocks to imitate horses trampling in search of the missing soundtrack.

In scenes like these, childish imagination and enthusiasm for humorous and poetic action fuse with the creative power of cinema. “The Light That Dreams Are Made of” not only preaches the joys of cinematic illusion, but becomes a masterpiece of sensory storytelling in its own right. In contrast to the brightly colored Bollywood musicals, turbulent action films, and pathetic boy-gobbling historical films at cinema, Nalin uses calm, powerful and meditative imagery in his film.

Photographer Swapnil S. collects images that you think you can touch, smell and taste because they hold the magic of illusion deeply.

“The light that dreams are made of” Director: Ban Nalin, with Bhavin Rappari, Bhavish Shrimali, Deepin Raval, 110 min, FSK 12

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