When Yale student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) seeks help following a sexual assault in Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” her admiration for professor Alma (Julia Roberts) curdles into charged tension when she suggests Maggie should keep this secret to herself. Cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed exactingly photographed the soul-stirring scene, channeling legends Sven Nykvist and Gordon Willis to craft a 1980s-inspired aesthetic of celluloid grain and realistic lighting, shaped by a lone 35mm lens. The film cuts between shallow-focus shots of each character’s face, hinting at the haze of uncertainty, before we see a close-up of Maggie’s hands dancing to her thoughts: “Because women are penalized for speaking out, I shouldn’t? That’s your logic? And then what? He just gets to get away with it?” Then we see Alma’s hands and wedding ring — the bedrock of her life — as she replies, “You can do whatever you like, Maggie.” Sayeed views the distinctive motif as a symbol of their connection. “It’s about the individual, the personal choices and the relationship between them as they’re navigating through this story,” he says. The flash point is punctuated by the song “É Preciso Perdoar” from Cesária Évora, Caetano Veloso and Ryuichi Sakamoto, which, music supervisor Robin Urdang suggests, underscores the moral compass of the film: “It’s important to forgive.”