The opening shot of All That Breathes is a slow truck from left to right at ground level. We start out of focus and slowly rack into clarity to reveal the dirty roadside of a street in Delhi lit by street and moonlight. Once we can see what we’re looking at we see garbage, a dog, and dozens of rats scuttling around in search of food. The camera gets incredibly close to the animals, but they never let on that humans and camera equipment are anything other than normal to them as they go about their nightly quest for sustenance. I spend so much time describing this opening shot because it really does set the stage for what to expect in this film. First, the craft and patience on display to achieve shots of animals whose behavior can’t be directed. Second, the relationships that arise in an urban environment between humans and animals and how even in the most unnatural surroundings we often form a symbiosis with each other whether we mean to or not.
Though the film begins with an army of rats, the main species featured in this story is the black kite, a medium sized bird of prey that hovers above Delhi and stalks its landfills. Even with all this focus on animals from the film’s outset this isn’t a nature documentary. Instead, director Shaunak Sen focuses on Nadeem and Saud, brothers who have dedicated their lives to caring for black kites and in-so-doing have developed an understanding of their city’s ecosystem. Sen’s camera allows the brothers to rest easy when attempting to describe their experience. More than anything, film should be about showing and not telling and All That Breathes takes this mission to heart. This film contains incredible footage, surprising and profound, and so much of it plays out in such a way that it challenges our very sense of disbelief. How could some of these moments not be scripted?
It turns out the secret according to Sen is patience. The film’s runtime is 93 minutes and according to a recent interview with the director that final cut was assembled from about 400 hours of footage, shot over several years. Serendipity is the source of All That Breathes’ most interesting shots, but the skilled documentary-makers know how to make room for such happy chance in the frame. For instance, after securing some important funding, the brothers step outside to toast their success with strawberry Cornettos. It is a whimsical scene, elevated to absurdity by an oblivious man who wanders into shot and begins to wash his dirty laundry in water from an overflow pipe. In another too-good-to-be-scripted moment, a kite swoops down and swipes the glasses off the face of a volunteer, before flying off with his loot in his beak. This volunteer, Salik, can only stare up in astonishment and admiration.
Salik becomes the accidental hero of the story. He has a pure, sweet soul and spends the entire movie providing optimism which foils perfect with older brother Nadeem’s pragmatic approach to life. One scene in this film paints Salik perfectly. During a cab ride through the city a baby squirrel climbs out of his breast pocket. Salik gently pets the creature before it crawls back into his shirt. Salik’s purity as a human is conveyed simply by knowing this animal trusts him so plainly.
Yet even with a sequence like that All That Breathes is never overly sentimental. Much of the film’s runtime is dedicated to listening to the brothers talk openly about human experience from their animist perspective. Animism is the belief that all objects, places, and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. We learn that they inherited this world view from their mother who constantly expressed her belief in the interconnectedness of all living things. A quote of hers gave the film its title. “One shouldn’t differentiate between all that breathes”.
Sen’s camera does a terrific job of living up to that perspective. The film treats every moment with equal care whether that be the brother’s conservation efforts or external crises in Delhi like rising air pollution and horrible Islamophobic violence. Instead of trying to build a narrative around any one of these film worthy subjects, All That Breathes takes a meditative approach. So much so in fact that I would ask that if you decide to give this film your attention you give it your full attention. As a viewer you must surrender to the slow nature inflected cadence of the film. In this film, like birdwatching in real life, you must be still to reap the rewards of what nature can show you.
All That Breathes is streaming on HBO Max.