All That Breathes (original) (raw)

Summary In one of the world’s most populated cities, two brothers — Nadeem and Saud — devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to the ecosystem of New Delhi that has been falling from the sky at alarming rates. Amid environmental toxicity and social unrest, the ‘kite brothers’ spen...

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Summary In one of the world’s most populated cities, two brothers — Nadeem and Saud — devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to the ecosystem of New Delhi that has been falling from the sky at alarming rates. Amid environmental toxicity and social unrest, the ‘kite brothers’ spen...

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100% Positive
19 Reviews

0% Mixed
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0% Negative
0 Reviews

100% Positive
19 Reviews

0% Mixed
0 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All That Breathes is the kind of immersive documentary experience other filmmakers, and film lovers, would do well to study. It never feels the need to explain what it’s doing. It’s as calm and patient as the Samaritans at its core.

All That Breathes blends a verité-style character study with gorgeous nature cinematography while never losing the film’s overall commentary on how man interacts with nature—or merely chooses to destroy it through inaction.

The documentary uses the brothers and their relationship with the carrion birds as metaphors for the state of the environmental and political climate of India’s capital, forming a subtle subtext to the main account.

The twin issues of climate change and Delhi’s ensuing air pollution remain largely unspoken factors in Sen’s film, which in its best moments constructs elaborate tracking shots detailing the full scale of devastation caused by extreme weather conditions.

Despite the poisons in the air, the brothers continue their work, mending broken creatures, one by one.

Shaunak Sen’s documentary is both otherworldly and humanizing, as if it were bridging a gap between different forms of existence.

The film follows two remarkable men in New Delhi: Mohammad Saud and his older brother Nadeem Shehzad, former bodybuilders who used their scientific curiosity, compassion and knowledge of human musculature to figure out how to care for sick and injured birds.

83% Positive
15 Ratings

17% Mixed
3 Ratings

0% Negative
0 Ratings

83% Positive
15 Ratings

17% Mixed
3 Ratings

0% Negative
0 Ratings

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Production Company HBO Documentary Films, Submarine Deluxe, Sideshow (II), Kiterabbit Films, Rise Films, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios

Release Date Oct 21, 2022

Duration 1 h 37 m

Rating Not Rated

Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US

• 3 Wins & 7 Nominations

International Documentary Association

• 4 Wins & 5 Nominations