‘All That Breathes’ is Shaunak Sen’s second Indian feature film documentary making it’s world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which runs between January 20 to 30, 2022. It has been selected as part of the World Cinema Documentary competition.
The title of the film ‘All That Breathes’ is a reference of the dark skies polluted from the violence and lack of care of the city. The birds that fly in the skies, called the black kites, suffer from the polluted airwaves that threatens their well-being of survival inhaling the air that is around them.
Two brothers, Nadeem Shahzad (44) and Mohammad Saud (40), live in the city of Delhi, India in an area where you see the absolute minimum of what they have, with damaged buildings, very little lighting, and a roof under their basement. In their basement, they run an organization called ‘Wildlife Rescue’, where they rescue the injured black kits and rehabilitate them from the damaged skies.
Director Shaunak Sen took notice of their heroic efforts as the organization made several news reports citing that they rescue more than 2,000 birds each year. This fascinating feat prompted Shaunak to reach out to the two brothers and share their story to the world, and rightfully deserving a spot at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
There are many reasons what makes this such a fascinating story. One of the big reasons is that Nadeem and Mohammad are not trained veterinarians. They simply had their own hearts when they first discovered an injured black kite and rescued it to bring to a nearby bird hospital run by the Delhi government. The bird was rejected for treatment on the basis that they were non-vegetarian birds, which pretty much led to them taking matters into their own hands and aiding the black kites themselves with their self-taught methods.
With this story shows a lot of the intricacies of the relationship between the brothers and the birds, playing off metaphors that the habitat they both live in simply adapt to the pollution instead of finding ways to improve the situation. The difference is that the black kites are more physically vulnerable as they spend their life outdoors in what nature is supposed to give them. Thankfully with the brothers’ efforts in rescuing and rehabilitating injured black kites, they get a second wind to take off when they recover from their hospital.
The efforts gave them national attention in news articles that helped lead them to receive funding in support of their animal welfare venture, thus giving their ‘Wildlife Rescue’ centre an investment boost to improve their facilities for the rescued birds.
Along with the brothers’ story, the film documentary also features scenes around the city of Delhi and how daily life contributes to the polluted air. The tight spaces of homes, traffic jams with cars running on fumes, and heavy smoke blowing out of large factories are just a few of the shots that show that it is a bustling city that leaves nature its lowest priority in taking care of itself.
The film documentary “All That Breathes” gave the two brothers the well-deserving exposure of their bird rescue organization, and it also gives a glimpse of the conditions they have to work and live in the city of Delhi. Perhaps this narrative would give some hope in some change in the ways the city is run. The two brothers have stated that “You don’t care for things because they share the same country, religion or politics. We’re all a community of air.” What they share is a valuable story, and restoring faith in humanity. While they cannot control how the city is run and the pollution it rides on, they found their purpose in taking care of the birds that are part of the city.
“All That Breathes” is by no means an effort to drum up social justice nor is it a nature documentary. It is simply an organic story about Nadeem and Mohammad’s purpose in their lives that they felt compelled to the black kits they see in the sky. It plays to the feel-good efforts they chose to do as their purpose in life, along with the contrasting environments they have to adapt to in order to do good within the city of Delhi. This leaves a lot of interpretation from the viewers to feel what they go through after watching their story.