From the film-maker:

The single, glimmering candle in the painting both illuminates and separates these two figures from each other. Because of the candlelight, we are conversely more aware of the darkness and what it holds. The framing of Honthorst’s painting, with its abundant head room, shrouded in shadow, implied to me that something invisible was there, watching the scene. This idea inspired the high angle shots in Lingering, which attempt to seat the audience as invisible witnesses. As for the painting, with watchful figures huddled in the darkness, and ourselves, beholding the painting from the front, Christ and Caliphate are surrounded by onlookers. Lingering’s single character, while alone in the room, is similarly aware of her concurrent exposure and estrangement. Though surrounded by the dead, the living, and the Hindu Gods themselves, she is utterly alone as her soul journeys the unlit path to salvation.

A. R. Madabushi

A piece inspired by Gerrit van Honthorst, Christ Before the High Priest,about 1617