Last Film Show

Nine-year-old Samay lives in a small village in Gujarat. His father does not think well of cinema, but one day he takes the family to a film, and in that darkness Samay sees something. From the next day he skips school for the old cinema in town; he makes an arrangement with Fazal the projectionist, giving him the food his mother cooked in exchange for watching films from the projection booth. Over one summer he learns how light works. Pan Nalin shot the film in Gujarati and drew on his own childhood. Behind the narrative sits a concrete history: the transition of Indian cinemas from celluloid to digital, the projectionists who lost their work in it, the machines taken apart, the reels melted down into something else. Bhavin Rabari plays Samay. The film was chosen as India's official entry for the 95th Academy Awards. Who it's for: Viewers who like films about cinema, child-centred narratives, and Indian independent cinema. Who it's not for: The nostalgia is laid on openly and some passages come close to sentimentality. The resemblance to Cinema Paradiso is felt throughout.