All That Breathes

Composite Score: 83.77

Featuring: Salik Rehman, Mohammad Saud, and Nadeem Shehzad

Director: Shaunak Sen

Genres: Documentary, Nature

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Box Office: $100,637 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                All That Breathes is a 2022 documentary about two brothers living in Delhi, working to save the black kites – birds native to the region who are suffering from the increase in pollution in the region. The film chronicles the brothers’ efforts to expand their bird clinic through international investment and increasing education with the help of a few of their employees. The story unfolds against a backdrop of an uptick in anti-Muslim violence in their area, upping the tension and increasing the thematic relevance of their work – as the brothers and their workers are all Muslims. The film’s exploration of the interconnectedness of the living world (all that breathes) and its gorgeous cinematography earned it an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature film at the most recent Oscars ceremony.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                For me, most of the best parts of the film were when the filmmakers took a step back from the brothers and their clinic and just looked at nature in the midst of an urban sprawl, exploring with the camera the ways that wild organisms are working to adapt to life in the midst of human pollution and expansion. The brothers’ struggles never quite carry the same amount of weight that simple shots of wild hogs running through ditches in slums do. I wish I cared more for the brothers’ efforts, but I think to some extent, you either know of the relevance of the issues at hand or you don’t and couldn’t be bothered to learn about it at this point. If you’re someone watching this documentary, there’s a pretty strong chance that you are already concerned about conservation and humanity’s connection to nature, so an additional personal connection probably won’t do a whole lot to change your way of thinking. If they had focused more on the parallel/juxtaposition of the kites’ struggle to survive in the city with the plight of Muslim populations in India, I think the brothers’ story would again take on a more interesting facet. Unfortunately, those parallels aren’t really made clear until the last few minutes of the film and really don’t get the exploration they deserve.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Visually, All That Breathes, is a striking documentary, delivering some excellent shots of nature in the midst of human waste and human expansion – a unique take on a nature documentary, at least in my experience. The long shots of birds flying around landfills, rats crawling around vacant lots, flies buzzing on trash, and many others serve to bring the film’s focus on the adaptation of nature to humanity and the whole world’s interconnectedness to the forefront of the audience’s minds. They are shots that feel so foreign to the usual nature documentaries that we are used to seeing of these types of animals in “natural” habitats. The jarring nature of the shots, lengthy though they are, allows the film to reiterate the direct and immediate impact of humans on their environment, not just in the struggles of the kites and other birds treated by the brothers.

                Even though I don’t necessarily find their story overly compelling, Nadeem and Saud do provide a plethora of wisdom and unique perspective throughout the film that help take it to another level. It is very interesting to watch someone work at their passion project and to get to hear them talk about it in length, and All That Breathes does a good job of taking us into these men’s passions and allowing us to hear what drew them there and what keeps them working at it. Despite the familiarity of their project, their commitment and the wisdom that they have to share are unique and keep the film engaging even in those more predictable moments, perhaps even shedding some light on what makes all of us tick in some ways.

                All That Breathes is an excellently shot documentary that delivers a fairly fresh and unique take on nature documentaries and highlights its subjects’ passion for their work in the process, achieving a level of filmmaking worthy of a place among the greats. Even if its core message is fairly played out at this point, the film’s original look and potential for deeper exploration keep it engaging. It is currently streaming on HBO Max if you’d like to watch it in the near future.