DESCRIPTION
What if from one day to the next, you’re no longer seen, but instead are stared at? The leading characters in All You See have ended up in a new world where suddenly nothing seems to align. In their new lives in the Netherlands, they unintentionally provoke reactions on a daily basis. Even after many years, they still hear the same questions over and over again: where are you from, do you speak Dutch, do you tan in the sun?
Contemplating questions of what it means to belong, who gets excluded, and how outsider status is continually reaffirmed, Padidar’s film foregrounds the sensation of being looked at. Honest, painful, and humorous encounters with three other ‘new comers’ to the Netherlands are stylistically interwoven between Padidar’s own personal history, opening up a vulnerable space of articulation with global resonance. A confessional collage with no simple outs, All You See turns the spotlight on all of us, while simultaneously asking: who is “us”?
GALLERY
REVIEWS & PRESS
Interview with Niki Padidar in Variety, November 9, 2022
“When are we going home?” Niki Padidar explores the immigrant experience in ‘All You See’ in Screen, November 9, 2022
All You See in See NL, November 8, 2022
“All You See is proof that the biggest of themes can be examined in the smallest of stories. It’s a film that whispers incessantly what it’s like for ‘others’ through its 72 minutes, and sometimes cries from the heart“
Fionnuala Halligan, Screen, 10.11.2022
“‘All You See is a breath of fresh air. A window opening, a breaking of the silence.’” Business Doc Europe, 10.11.2022
“An emotional and visually elegant documentary essay on exile and othering from the viewpoint of the othered” Cineuropa, 2.5.2023