In one of the world's most populated cities, cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people. Here, two brothers fall in love with a bird – the black kite. From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement (as meat-eaters, the birds are rejected by the city’s bird hospitals), the "kite brothers" care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi's smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city's collapsing ecology and rising social tensions.
A documentary paean to these brothers’ passion, tenacity, and tender concern for a bird more common than the NYC pigeon, ALL THAT BREATHES is the only film to be awarded both the Grand Jury Prize in World Documentary Competition (Sundance) and the L’Œil d’or documentary prize (Cannes).
Hindi with subtitles. NR, 91 min.
"An immersive, haunting documentary portrait...with intimacy, a great score and some fantastic macro cinematography. There is no denying the movie’s power or its subject; there’s also no denying the heartbreak of its images." – New York Times
"Shaunak Sen's ALL THAT BREATHES is a film as gorgeous as it is ambitious, as stirring as it is terrifying." – Spirituality & Health
"A stone-cold masterpiece." – Film Companion
"At its most breathtaking when Sen stops to ponder how animals improvise to the city’s strange ecosystem. Sen means to depict New Delhi as both a city and an ecosystem: a place that, for all its upheaval, remains achingly alive." – The Playlist