Before we go any further, Arifa, do you have a cultural highlight that you want to recommend to the world?

Yes, I do.

A German friend from Berlin gave me a book of short stories by Heinrich von Kleist.

I'd never heard of him.

Prussian from the 18th century.

Then, coincidentally, I was sent to review a play called Michael Kohlhaas.

And this play was originally a short story by Heinrich von Kleist.

Does the film itself, in your opinion, succeed in expressing them?

Did you believe that when that turn came?

You know, because I think Claire Foy is such an extraordinary actor, I think I did believe in her when she...

About two-thirds into the film, there's a moment where they have a reckoning and they talk about their infidelities and she says, I forgive you, I love you anyway.

And I believed in that moment.

But the annoying thing about her character is... you know, she's the gentry, she's the aristocrat, and she's married down, and he's this terrible, rapacious social climber.

You just don't know why she's married him.

You don't know enough about her to feel for her in a sustained way.

And it's tied in, isn't it, to another theme in the book, which is what is your responsibility to act or not act when you see bad things happening? That's right there at the beginning of the book.

darkness in your book?

It started off out of fear.

You know, I was thinking, why am I afraid of the dark? I'm 50-something woman, I'm really independent, sort of fearless in many ways.

So what is it about the dark? The inside dark scares me the most.

Unknown inside rooms that I don't know, hotel rooms.

spaces inside.

Ironically, I'm fine outside because I was I grew up in a family with a father who loved walking.

How does all that fit

Why did you want to explore darkness in your book?

It started off out of fear.

You know, I was thinking, "Why am I afraid of the dark? I'm a 50-something woman.

I'm really independent, sort of fearless in many ways, so what is it about the dark?" The inside dark scares me the most, unknown inside rooms that I don't know, hotel rooms, um, spaces inside.

The, ironically, I'm fine outside because I was gr- I grew up in a family with a father who loved walking, so I sort of inherited that love of night walking, but still there's this fear.

That led me into a bit of an expedition into the, into darkness, into nighttime.

When I realized that nighttime and dark spaces, this sounds obvious, but it took a little while to realize darkness and nighttime is different for women.

Yes