INDIAN MANDALA ‘All that breathes’, the Oscar-nominated film brings today’s India to the screen

It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. However, the work of director Shaunak Sen is much more than a description of New Delhi’s environmental problems. The film tells the story of two Muslim brothers who, in the basement of their house, rescue black kites, birds of prey that can coexist with man. But what is toxic for Nadeem and Saud is the government’s discrimination and propaganda.

Milan () – Indian cinema has won three Oscar nominations this year: one for best original song with “Naatu naatu” (which in Telugu means “dance dance” and has already won a Golden Globe) in the hit film “RRR” (whose director, SS Rajampuli hoped to see it nominated for best film after receiving the James Cameron endorsement), while the other two nominations are for best documentary: “The elephant whisperers” by Kartiki Gonsalves, nominated among the short films, and “All that breathes” by Shaunak Sen (already awarded as best director at the IDA Documentary Awards) who competes for the award for best documentary feature film.

Pan Nalin’s “Chhello Show,” an almost autobiographical portrait of the director about a Gujarati boy’s love of cinema, failed to make the selection for the best foreign language film category.

Both documentaries, on the other hand, focus on wildlife conservation and are the only ones in their respective categories to address this issue, but All That Breathes also intertwines a number of contemporary Indian political and social issues. A film that critics have called “gripping”, “moving”, sometimes even “funny”, and which last year won a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and an Oeil d’or at Cannes, although director Shaunak Sen I was not expecting see his nominated work among films dealing with environmental issues. The film, made over three years, tells the story of two Muslim brothers, Nadeem and Saud, who have decided to dedicate their lives to the protection of the black kite, a bird of prey essential for the conservation of the ecosystem in the Indian capital, New Delhi (one of the most populous and polluted cities in the world), when a local clinic refuses to treat an injured kite because it is a “non-vegetarian bird”.

In 2010 both founded the NGO Wildlife Rescue, where each year an average of 2,500 sick, injured or orphaned birds are treated and assisted. Whatever the reason they bring a bird to the brothers’ underground clinic, their goal is to make it possible for them to return to life in the wild. A nature contaminated by man, where the kites, in an apocalyptic way, continue to fall from the sky, dazed by the smog or are forced to look for food in mountains of garbage tens of meters high and use cigarette butts as antiparasitics.

“When you live in Delhi, the air takes on a physical character: it is heavy, tactile, palpable, almost alive, eerie and perceptible,” Sen explained. “I was fascinated by this gray texture that covers all our lives and that we breathe. If you look up, there’s a monochrome sky with all these black dots floating around. It’s the dystopian postcard of Delhi. I was fascinated by what you could do with that state of mind or vital tonality”

This description does not refer only to the pollution of the city. In All that breathes, birds of prey are not the only ones in danger. Nadeem and Saud, who sell soap dispensers for a living, are Muslim as they are threatened by riots and protests against the Islamic minority in the capital, which have reached almost to their doorstep in the Wazirabad slum. In another scene, the two celebrate because the government has renewed their NGO’s license, allowing them to receive funding from abroad, an issue that had been raised several times in the past year regarding charitable activities that are not specifically Hindu. Salik, Nadeem and Saud’s aide, asks what will happen to the birds in the event of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. “Where did you hear that?” asks one of the brothers. “I read it on social networks,” Salik replies, bringing to the screen the issue of misinformation and government propaganda against the neighboring country.

“Things don’t matter to you because you share the same country, religion or politics,” the brothers state at one point. “Life itself is kinship. That’s why we can’t abandon the birds,” he continues, revealing a deeper relationship between species than simply caring for the environment to counter the climate crisis. “Delhi is an open wound and we are a small dressing,” adds Nadeem. But later the brothers also admit that it is the opposite, that it is not so much they who save the birds, but the birds of prey who have saved them, bringing meaning, a mission and a small dose of hope to their lives.