Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes documentary gets a release date

Dogwoof has announced that they will be releasing Shaunak Sen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary All That Breathes on October 14, across the UK and Ireland. The film directed by Shaunak Sen documents a pair of Muslim brothers in Delhi who devote countless hours to restore the health of ailing black kite birds. All That Breathes followed up its victory for Best Documentary at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival by winning the top documentary honour L’Œil d’Or (“Golden Eye”) award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the first Indian film to win the world cinema Grand Jury prize.

As legions of birds fall from New Delhi’s darkening skies, and the city smoulders with social unrest, two brothers race to save a casualty of the turbulent times: the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to their city’s ecosystem.  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 Muslim brothers who help them return to the skies, offering a mesmerizing chronicle of inter-species coexistence.

The brothers are unique philosophers of the urban. In 2017, Delhi’s air was 12 times worse than the second most polluted city in the world, Beijing. Such an extreme environment prompts unprecedented changes in nonhuman life. The brothers are expert witnesses to these remarkable ecological changes. The combined stories of this human-kite ensemble paint an untold picture of life in the world’s most hazardous urban environment. It tells the story of toxicity – in the air and among people – and shines a light on a remarkable family that chooses to battle on against the backdrop of both. As Nadeem says ‘You don’t care for things because they share the same country, religion or politics.  Life itself is kinship.  We’re all a community of air. That’s why we can’t abandon the birds’

Directed by Shaunak Sen, ALL THAT BREATHES is a Kiterabbit Films and Rise Films production in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios

ALL THAT BREATHES will be in cinemas across the UK & Ireland on OCTOBER 14 2022.