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All That Breathes

All That Breathes

2022

Shaunak Sen

Documentary

6.3

293

Documentary The darkening backdrop of Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the Black Kite.

	Media	Author	Review
		Daniel Fienberg The Hollywood Reporter	"Quietly provocative and dreamily beautiful (...) In this tiny marvel of a documentary, it's a little and a lot all at once"
		Dennis Harvey Variety	"Sen's deceptively casual observational documentary prefers dwelling on resistance and resilience to pronouncements of doom. The meditative yet ingratiating impact is furthered by [the] score"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"A vital and transfixing work of urban ecology about two Muslim brothers who share an uncommonly holistic perspective of the world around them"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Complex and quietly beautiful film (...) Mohammad and Nadeem experience a kind of ritual dedication to their community and to the ideal of interconnectedness (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"'All That Breathes' isn't just a gorgeously poetic display of the natural world but a reframing of why these things should matter not just to people as devoted as Nadeem and Saud but all of us (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Robert Abele Los Angeles Times	"Extraordinary documentary (...) Wherever you are, 'All That Breathes' is asking, can you see what's there, what needs your attention?"
		Jasper Rees Telegraph	"These birds are utterly other, while their rescuers represent the best of us (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Ned Booth The Playlist	"If Sen were to better connect Nadeem and Saud's faith and civic identities with the animals' desperate fight for balance in an urbanized nature, [it'd] be an excellent documentary. All the same, it's a very good one"
		Allan Hunter Screendaily	"Mesmerising (...) Sen [invites] our own thoughts and draw us towards our own conclusions (...) [It] allows us to see the bigger picture of a highly connected, complex world that humanity shares but seems intent on destroying"
		Alistair Ryder The Film Stage	"The choices in cinematography aided its storytelling ––highlighting how invisible devastation to the city's nature is for those who live there (...) One of the most powerful cinematic approaches to the climate crisis yet made"
		Pat Brown Slant	"Shaunak Sen’s documentary is both otherworldly and humanizing, as if it were bridging a gap between different forms of existence (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		John Nugent Empire	"A thoughtful, meditative thesis on humanity’s relationship with nature, filmed with the kind of cinematographic beauty most fiction filmmakers can only aspire towards (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Aparita Bhandari Paste Magazine	"[It] is enchanting (...) There have been other stories about the amateur medic duo, along with their assistant Salik Rehman, but none as lyrical as this documentary"
		Caroline Cao SlashFilm	"This documentary paints sad elegance for New Delhi bird surgeons "
		A. O. Scott The New York Times	"A subtle, haunting reflection on the meaning of humanity —on the breathtaking kindness and heartbreaking cruelty that define our wounded, intrepid, predatory species"
		Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"Gently mesmerizing documentary (...) strangely uplifting film (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"
		K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone	"It favors a poetic, almost dreamy style (...) in favor of mesmerizing us with ebbing ideas and moments of wonder"
		Maxwell Rabb Chicago Reader	"'All That Breathes' presents a poetic, intensely beautiful story so precise that, at times, it feels staged but instead emerges from hours of painstaking care"
		Carol Midgley The Times	"Simple in its slow, calm storytelling, but profound in the philosophical points it raised about how we are all connected in the vast ecosystem (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Katz Cineuropa	"A gripping film about virtue and good deeds (...) With consummate skill, and an on-the-nose comparison between political and environmental discord that just about sells itself, Sen has captured a world out of joint"

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