A group of film industry members were invited to a special screening of All That Breathes at the Metrograph on New York’s Lower East Side. The screening was followed by a Q&A between the film’s director Shaunak Sen and film critic Jordan Hoffman, then a reception in the Metrograph’s stylish lobby bar.
All That Breathes and its cast and crew have had a banner year after taking on the film festival circuit. The film has won at the BFI London Film Festival, Sundance and most notably at Cannes where it won the prestigious L’Oeil d’or, the festival’s top documentary award. And given the subject of the film, understandably so. All That Breathes follows the lives of two brothers, Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, living in Delhi, India who have spent the past twenty-five years addressing the issue of “falling kites.” Not the paper and wood contraptions reminiscent of childhood but the large majestic black birds that have made Delhi their home. The birds are often found in the street, tangled in string coated in glass, a result of the popularity of kite flying within Delhi combined with its pollution problem. The film shows the brothers in their cramped basement, hunched over injured birds literally performing surgery to address cuts, torn wings, and infections.
For Sen, the film was not born out of a curiosity to follow the brothers’ work specifically but by the permeating presence of Delhi’s smoky, dark sky. At the Q&A, Sen recounted a story of sitting in his car and noticing one of the black dots scattered throughout the sky (the Kites) falling to the ground. He took to Google to learn more about these falling birds and that’s when he discovered the brothers. The brothers, outside of their impressive mission, are humorous, whether intentionally or not and charming. Throughout the film they fall into a familial banter that only a pair of siblings could produce and their sincerity towards helping these birds never once falters. Sen describes the brothers as “philosophers of the urban,” who “bare poetic witness to behavioral and evolutionary changes in the city.”
What sets this film apart from the other documentaries it’s been up against is Shaunak’s directorial style. Unlike most documentaries that take the reportorial route, Sen went with a more artful approach. He cites directors Tarkovsky and Victor Kossakovsky as inspiration. The film not only follows the brothers, it also follows Delhi’s ecosystem, with shots of mice squirming through a field at night and a puddle of water, showing the reflection of an airplane soaring above and a millipede simultaneously crawling through. The dynamic between urban civilization and the animals that came from centuries before may very well be the most poignant aspect of the film.
Jordan Hoffman wrapped up the night with one last question: “Can you tell us what you’re working on next?” Shaunak’s response: “I would if I knew.”
In the meantime, while fans wait for Shaunak’s next great film, All That Breathes will be playing throughout the US, UK and Canada through the end of December. Tickets can be bought on the film’s official website, here.