Night Burns Like Cigarettes (2022) on Netflix

Plot summary

Shot at night under city lighting, the documentary treats the night as something people burn through, the way a cigarette is used up, and asks what the habit of over-lighting our cities keeps out. A narrator puts the question, and the fear of darkness and of the unknown runs through our socio-political history. The night makes us human and lets us question the boundaries of the self, and the piece is a declaration of love for a night that is disappearing. In a dance performance, the British-Zimbabwean singer Kwaye stakes a claim to the dark. A Banksy mural in the Barbican tunnel holds the night under arrest.