This is a French film based on an Italian novel and set in India, with a heavy Portuguese presence and quotes from an obscure German book. I expected whitewashing and to see India through the occidental gaze but discovered a subtle, very smart thriller with mind-boggling subplots and some of the finest Indian actors in unforgettable parts. The atmosphere of the film is similar to the weather that makes the main character almost faint in a Mumbai hospital. I found a lot of the suffocating vibes of Apocalypse Now present, even though in a more fleeting style of narration and, dare I say, better? This is how European cinema should look out of itself in our postcolonial modernity.
Nocturne Indien, 1989
Director: Alain Corneau
