One should not differentiate between all that breathes

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2022

#33 : All That Breathes

Two Indian brothers dedicate themselves to rescuing birds that are being poisoned by pollution in this complex and quietly beautiful film.

Unsurprisingly, this is another film I've never even heard of - I'm somewhat intrigued as to how you can make a whole film out of a couple of guys rescuing some birds, but let's see, shall we?  I also think it's the first Indian film I've written about - and it's not going to be the last one in this year either!

It's got a quite extraordinary beginning with a camera panning across some wasteground at the height of a couple of centimetres and the wildlife present gradually coming into vision.  It's beautifully done, but you might not like it if you've got a thing about rats - there are, shall we say, quite a few of them.

And the theme of animals very much continues throughout the film, with the director taking every opportunity to include the local wildlife - and there's a large variety!  But it mainly focuses on the birds, a lot of which are dying as a result of pollution and two brothers, Nadeem and Saud, who decided to make it their job to rescue them and nurse them back to health.  At some point Salik also got involved and he's in the film a lot, but never gets mentioned in any of the reviews, so I'm bigging him up here - well done, Salik!

Most of the birds involved are black kites but there are also some very cute owls involved and at one point, a massive heron walks through the shot.  They basically operate on and clean the birds in their garage (which floods in the monsoon season) and then nurse them back to health in cages on the roof - and the shots panning across the cages are really quite something, with some of the birds looking very fearsome indeed.  And they have many, many birds - 172 of them at one point!

Towards the middle of the film, it does get quite heavy in a "what are we all doing here?" kinda way - it asks some good questions but doesn't even attempt to answer them (which is probably best!).  Also, throughout the film, real life has a nasty habit of intruding in the form of social, religious and national unrest and it's all looking a bit touch and go at one point, but the brothers continue striving to do their best - and we're left thinking "while they're doing that, what have we achieved with our lives?!?".  

The birds are the visual stars of the film, but it would be nothing with the guys and what they've achieved.  They're all incredibly cool customers when dealing with some sizeable creatures - at one point this huge kite flies past Nadeem and snatches his glasses off his face and he simply stands there in awe at what it's done.  They also do the maddest things like swimming across a river that has crocodiles in it to go and rescue a kite - and nearly exhausting themselves coming back.  The film handles their relationship nicely - they obviously have a deep bond, but it doesn't shy away from showing us the tensions that exist as they try to resolve the various strands of their lives (and at times their confusion as to why they do what they do!)

It's really beautifully shot so Shaunak Sen deserves credit for that - particularly when he's contrasting man and nature.  There's also so much effort been put into some of the shots - in one ten second pan, the camera moves from the road to the roadside, passing over some rubbish, settling on a puddle just as a huge centipede emerges from it and then a plane flying overhead is reflected in the water.  There's also a really cool moment where Nadeem is sitting in a cab (surrounded by boxes filled with sick birds) and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny squirrel - doesn't everyone do that?

I would, however, struggle to describe this film as action-packed - nothing really happens in it (although it does manage to squeeze in a totally unexpected five seconds right at the end of the film).  However, for most of it I was happy to just settle back and enjoy the extremely beautiful nothingness that was going on - I think it helped that it was a documentary so you didn't necessarily feel it needed any plot or action, but there is also the argument that it's not really telling you a lot about the subjects either.  It also helped that Delhi is such an alien environment to me that I found it interesting to just try and understand what I was seeing - the shots of the rubbish dump are certainly impressive (if somewhat depressing).  It also taught me how to avoid a kite attack - who knows when that might come in handy?!?

But would I recommend it?  It's an interesting one because I really liked a lot of the content and the characters are interesting, but overall it felt a bit disappointing - the whole thing is somehow less than its parts.  If you're in the mood for some gorgeous visuals and some nice people making you question your worth as a human being, then this very much there for you - but overall it just didn't quite hit the spot for me.  It's not an unrecommendation, but it's not a recommendation either.

At the time of writing, it's available to stream on NowTV and nowhere else - which is unusual.

#34 - A good final third
#32 - An educational write-up for an intriguing film