Sister Midnight: Wes Anderson meets Charlie Chaplin – the best Cannes film of 2024 so far

MOVIE REVIEWS

May 20, 2024 at 10:06 p.m

The best film so far at Cannes 2024 was shown outside the competition and is titled “Sister Midnight”. Find out more in our film review!

In the parallel section “Director’s Fortnight” at Cannes 2024, the film “Sister Midnight” by Indian director Karan Kandhari and starring actress Radhika Apte and Ashok Pathak was shown. Even though it’s a rather small film for the western market, “Sister Midnight” packs a punch.

The film is a quirky comedy about a newlywed couple who did not know each other before marriage and are strangers to each other even after marriage. Protagonist Uma finally begins to find and realize herself as a person in this “prison of marriage”.

This journey of self-discovery soon becomes more and more crazy when Uma, in order to feel good about herself, starts killing animals and drinking their blood. What sounds like horror nonsense is to be understood as a grotesque metaphor for the role of women in India, who have to hold back and only rarely have the chance to satisfy their own needs.

However, for everyone else who doesn’t want to deal with the satirical aspect of the film, “Sister Midnight” is also just a wonderfully bizarre comedy.

Humorous, exciting and socially critical – that’s how cinema should be!

I have just highlighted the socially critical message of the film and this is conveyed through the humorous and exciting elements of the film in such a way that the film never comes across as didactic, but always invites you to laugh and sit back.

There are many creative ideas in the narrative and from the vampire-esque nature of the story to an image aesthetic reminiscent of Wes Anderson (“Asteroid City”), the film soon becomes a very unique piece of film art that is difficult to describe.

However, the visual design through the strong colors and the symmetrical images is significantly less friendly in terms of imagery than Wes Anderson, but is almost painting-like due to the much stronger contrasts and the use of complementary colors.

Lead actress Radhika Apte is also almost Charlie Chaplin-esque in her body language and facial expressions. She gives the film heart, class and charm! With small nuances in her acting, Apte gets the most out of every scene.

Always bordering on slapstick, but never unbelievable, her role even has cult potential if “Sister Midnight” wasn’t this small independent film that probably won’t get too much attention. It’s all the more important that I now write about the strip!