![]() ![]() Let’s face it, is the place, in terms of status and recognition “Delhi is a gaping wound and we’re a tiny Band-Aid on it,” says Nadeem. All the while the kites keep dropping from the sky. The brothers’ problems keep mounting: the meat grinder for the kites’ chum is on the fritz (as is their freezer), the city is becoming engulfed in sectarian protests over a divisive citizenship law, seen as targeting Muslims like them and they must still contend with all the other travails a working family has to on a daily basis. Saud’s young son has a worrying cough, people were wearing face masks in the city way before Covid hit, and the family’s air purifier seems permanently stuck on red because the filters need changing. Delhi’s chronic air pollution problem wraps itself around so many aspects of their lives. “One shouldn’t differentiate between all that breathes,” says Saud, in one of many ruminations, and the very idea of breathing is fundamental to every theme the film touches on. Saud seems happy to keep doing what he’s doing, but Nadeem yearns to see the world beyond their district of Wazirabad and wants to pursue studies in America. While both are passionate about the birds, fitting in animal hospital duties amid their daily toil takes its toll. They have loved birds since they were infants and have been treating black kites for nearly 20 years via the organisation they founded, Wildlife Rescue. They narrate the film with spoken thoughts. The first experts Sen spoke to were brothers Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud: and the director knew he had his subjects. The sun is this diffuse blot and the air that you’re breathing in, the whole ecological bubble you are in, feels hostile to your sense of sustenance. “This fabric of greyness, this mood, this tone, where the sky and the clouds and the buildings just sort of mesh into each other has fascinated me for some time. “Anyone who lives in Delhi knows that you are constantly surrounded by this grey sensorium,” says the film’s director, Shaunak Sen. Much of that is to do with the Indian capital’s role in the film: a scruffy, belligerent character, integral to the story. The events depicted are less important than the overall feeling. It is not a wildlife documentary, nor a table thumping call to action it is not a family drama nor a political film – and yet it contains elements of all these, woven into a poetic and beautiful tapestry. After winning the world cinema grand jury prize at the Sundance film festival this year it is screening at Cannes, and in many ways it is easier to say what it is not than to define what it is. ![]() Anyway, that's about all I have to say about Birds Of Prey.T he award-winning documentary All That Breathes is a meditation on life in Delhi through the eyes and hands of two brothers that nurse injured birds back to health. I wouldn't mind finding a copy of this movie in VHS or DVD for nostalgia sake, but I'm sure I never will. I have seen worse movies with bigger budgets. Yeah, it wasn't much, but then again, considering it had virtually no budget I will give it a couple points for the effort, and the shower scene. I barely remember anything about it, story wise that is, just a few scattered images. ![]() It wasn't until 1988 that it turned up on the movie channel here in Canada that I finally saw it. ![]() As for the shower scene, considering their budget I thought she was attractive. The only compensation I ever got was one dry cake donut. I'm in two scenes, one at the police station and the other during the raid at the hotel. I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I was one of the nameless uncredited extras in this movie. It was filmed in Edmonton, Alberta back in the middle of a cold winter, then again every winter is a cold winter in Edmonton. I'm amused that this movie actually has a listing here. ![]()
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