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The 2022 Indian documentary feature All That Breathes did not win the Oscar the Best Documentary Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards. The movie, now acquired by HBO, was competing against All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, A House Made of Splinters and the ultimate winner, Navalny. Last year, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing with Fire had been nominated for an Oscar, but lost the prize to Questlove’s Summer of Soul.
Directed by Shaunak Sen, All That Breathes tells the tale of two Muslim brothers who live in Delhi, and have made it their life’s sole goal and motive to save a dying breed of birds, black kites, who have been dying due to the toxic environment. The brothers’ compassion has struck a chord with international viewers, who have already given the movie high ratings. Its current rating at review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes stands at an impressive 99 per cent, with critical consensus reading, “A poetic tribute to tenacity, All That Breathes uses two brothers’ tireless efforts to make a broader point about finding triumph within tragedy.”
The official synopsis of All That Breathes reads, “In one of the world’s most populated cities, two brothers — Nadeem and Saud — devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to the ecosystem of New Delhi that has been falling from the sky at alarming rates. Amid environmental toxicity and social unrest, the ‘kite brothers’ spend day and night caring for the creatures in their makeshift avian basement hospital. Director Shaunak Sen (Cities of Sleep) explores the connection between the kites and the brothers who help them return to the skies, offering a mesmerizing chronicle of inter-species coexistence.”
Earlier, speaking to The Telegraph, Sen had shared what the entire experience of getting such a warm reception from the audience and critics has been like: “My life has utterly transformed since All That Breathes came out. We started our journey from the Sundance Film Festival last year, through the Cannes Film Festival to BFI London Film Festival and others. It’s just been a relentless treadmill of flights, screenings, hotels and constant travelling. The recent weeks have been more geared towards the campaign for the Oscars as I am having to cover a wide base of screenings. It has been exhilarating in equal measure. It is tiring and demanding but at the same time it has been incredibly joyful because I’m getting to show the film to so many people. At the Oscars nominees lunch, I’ve had the opportunity to meet my heroes Steven Spielberg, Martin McDonagh, Colin Farrell and others. It definitely feels like a dream!”
Before the Oscars, All That Breathes had already won top prizes at prestigious film festivals such as Cannes, and Sundance Film Festival.
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