‘All That Breathes’: Indian Film Bags Top Documentary Award At Cannes 2022

Pic courtesy Twitter/IFP

Cannes: An Indian film has won the top documentary award, the Golden Eye, at the 75th Cannes Film Festival which concluded on Saturday.

Delhi-based filmmaker Shaunak Sen’s documentary ‘All That Breathes’ had previously won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival. Now it’s hit the jackpot at Cannes.

The documentary was acquired by HBO Documentary Films when it premiered in the Special Screening segment at Cannes earlier this week.

Produced by Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer with David Guy Elisco and Sean B. Carroll serving as executive producers, the 90-minute All That Breathes follows siblings Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who have devoted their lives to rescuing and treating injured birds, especially black kites.

The brothers, who work out of their dilapidated basement in Delhi’s Wazirabad, are the central focus of the film as their story zooms out to document a larger snapshot of a city with toxic air and social turmoil.

“The astonishing story of Saud and Nadeem, and their relationship with the majestic raptor called the ‘black kite,’ took us three years to shape. Over time, the story became symptomatic of both Delhi’s ecological and social malaise, while also giving glimpses of a rare resilience,” Sen was quoted as saying by PTI.

An alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sen said he was thrilled to see his film joining the HBO roster.

“Most of us in the crew in India have grown up associating the unmistakable white noise of the HBO logo with high-quality cinematic programming. We’re thrilled to join their roster and to work with Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe to bring this story to a global audience,” he added.