All That Breathes Review: The beautiful documentary by Shaunak Sen follows the efforts of three guys in New Delhi to protect the city's raptors.




All That Breathes Review





Overview:



  • Documentary as a genre.
  • Original language: Hindi
  • Shaunak Sen is the director
  • Producers: Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann, and Shaunak Sen
  •  Date: October 21, 2022, Feb. 7, 2023
  • Time: 1 hour 31 minutes.
  • Submarine Deluxe is the distributor.




Movie info:


Cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs live side by side with people in one of the world's busiest cities. The black kite is the object of the two brothers' devotion in this instance. Thousands of these fascinating creatures fall daily from New Delhi's smog-choked skies, and the "kite brothers" tend to them from their improvised bird hospital in their tiny basement. A beautiful chronicle of the city's deteriorating ecological and escalating social tensions is formed by the bond between this Muslim family and the abandoned kite as environmental toxicity and civic turmoil worsen.


Review:


Not since Pixar's Ratatouille have so many quarreling vermin been given so much cinematic dignity as in the opening shot of All That Breathes (Sky Documentaries), which is a ground-level sweep across an abandoned wasteland.



Shaunak Sen, a documentary filmmaker, last documented this Delhi in his 2015 film Cities of Sleep, which examined how "sleep mafias" profited from homelessness in the Indian capital. Although All That Breathes received little attention outside of film festivals, it has already gained recognition on a global scale after winning the grand jury prize at Sundance, best documentary at Cannes, and receiving nominations for the Bafta and Oscar. The strange beauty of a thousand rats basking in the moonlight can now be experienced by an even larger audience thanks to this Sky Documentaries slot.



The black kite, which flies over Delhi's skies and patrols its landfills, is among the several other wildlife species that appear, but this isn't a nature documentary. Instead, the focus is on brothers Nadeem and Saud, who have gained a profound understanding of the urban ecosystem by dedicating their entire lives to caring for these majestic raptors. It must be observed. Sen's slow-tracking camera does indeed film so much of what is lovely, unexpected, and meaningful in and around the brothers' temporary basement bird sanctuary that it appears some of it must have been staged or choreographed.


Sen's only secret is patience, which has become rare and valuable as a result of becoming increasingly valuable to Delhi's migrant workers. The 93-minute running duration of All That Breathes was meticulously culled from 400 hours of unfinished video that was shot over several years. The director recently stated, "You have to let the camera run and simply bore the living daylights out of your subjects to achieve a sense of everyday mundaneness. "You haven't acquired any usable stuff from them until you've gotten the first yawn from them."



All That Breathes' most intriguing photos come from serendipity, but the skillful (or patient) documentary makers know how to leave room in the frame for such a lucky chance. For instance, the brothers go outside to celebrate their accomplishment with strawberry Cornettos after receiving some crucial cash (why not?). The carefree man who wanders into the camera and starts unappealingly washing his dirty linen in water from an overflow pipe elevates the playful picture to exquisite ridiculousness. Another scene that seems too wonderful to be true occurs as a kite swoops down and steals a volunteer's glasses before taking off with his booty in his beak. Salik, a volunteer, can only look up in wonder and respect.



Salik is one of those real-life "characters" that every documentary maker must hope to meet. He is the ideal counterpoint to his brother Nadeem's dry-humored practicality because of his beautiful soul and a constant stream of upbeat speech. It is difficult to think of a moment that more perfectly captures Salik's almost otherworldly purity than when, during a city taxi ride, a small furry animal - a baby squirrel, perhaps? - unexpectedly emerges from his breast pocket. Before returning the small furball to its original location, Salik gives it a gentle pet. How frequently do you encounter that kind of moment outside of Pixar films?



However, All that Breathes never comes out as sentimental or sweet. Nadeem and Saud's reflections on the human condition are prompted by the everyday activities involved in kite conservation, following the animist example provided by their late mother. The film's title, "One shouldn't differentiate between all that breathes," comes from her perspective on the interdependence of all living things.


Camera-Sen takes care to avoid doing so. Finding "the small tale that conveys the larger story" is a common theme in documentaries, but not in this one. There is no suggestion of a hierarchy of priority, even though Nadeem and Saud's work continues as a result of, despite, and in the middle of major issues like ongoing air pollution and an increase in Islamophobic violence.


All That Breathes, on the other hand, is a contemplative, sincere work of cinema that belongs to any place the human animal coexists with others. That audience can be reached by television. 


However, the soul-transforming enchantment of All That Breathes won't operate until we can submit to its slower natural rhythms and calm down like a birdwatcher. That's simpler to do in a darkened theater than it is in a homeroom full of distractions.