How Delhi brothers give wings to birds dropping from the sky
AWARD-WINNING FILM DEPICTS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RAPTORS AND THEIR RESCUERS
FILM-MAKER Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes is a mesmerising exploration of the ecological devastation crippling New Delhi, seen through the eyes of two brothers, Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud, who have made it their mission to save injured black kite birds dropping from the city’s skies.
Delhi’s toxic air affects visibility to the extent that bigger birds, especially raptors, regularly collide into buildings or get entangled in wires.
“Life itself is kinship. We are all a community of air. One shouldn’t differentiate between all that breathes,” Shehzad says in the film.
All That Breathes, which has been acquired by HBO for a worldwide rollout, won the best documentary award at both the Cannes and Sundance film festivals this year.
For Sen, who is from Delhi, there is no escape from the effects of pollution. Air pollution in India’s capital is reportedly 12 times worse than that of Beijing, which ranks second on the global list.
“If you live in a city like Delhi, you’re breathing in noxious fumes. The greyness you see in the film is an omnipresent experience – this grey, monotone heavy sky, a toxic haze that laminates your life,” the filmmaker said.
“In that sense, I’ve always been interested in the triangulation of air, birds and the people in the city of Delhi,” Sen told
Eastern Eye, revealing his interest in human-animal relationships.
“I was stuck in a traffic jam and remember looking up, seeing these lazy black dots, which are the black kites. I saw one of them fall, it was basically stooping to the ground. Since then, I’ve been gripped by the sensation of a black kite falling off the sky and looking for places where they would end up.”
Sen’s search led him to Shehzad and Saud, who run a soap dispensing business. In a dark, cluttered basement garage, they have a makeshift bird hospital where they have saved more than 20,000 birds. “I went to that remarkable basement with industrial decay on one side and magisterial birds being treated on the other,” said Sen.
“The moment you step in, you are struck by the surreal and absurd nature of the claustrophobic space and all that is going on in there. I immediately sensed it is an inherently cinematic place,” he said.
Though Shehzad and Saud carry out intricate surgeries with self-made surgical tools on the birds, they have no medical training. They learned about skeletal and muscle structure from their experience of bodybuilding training.
“When they encountered their first bird, they happened to be amateur bodybuilders. They liked niche fitness magazines and were interested in that and that’s one of the ways they approached it (treating the bird),” said Sen.
“They haven’t acquired any formal medical training over the years, but I have met a number of vets, and Nadeem and Saud are more skilled and knowledgeable than many of them.”
As children, the siblings used to lie down on their terrace, gazing up as the elders in their family tossed raw meat skyward. They watched as hundreds of kites used to swoop down to catch the meat.
Meat tossing continues to be a popular activity in Muslim areas of Delhi. Muslims believe the act of feeding birds-ofprey washes away the sins of the meattosser. The act of looking up – by their own admission – provided a kind of release into an open, liberating expanse.
At an early age, the brothers fell in love with birds, and especially the black kite.
The brothers learned about caring for “all that breathes” from their mother.
The film depicts the relationships they have with the birds as that of a mother and child. In one scene, Saud and his cousin Salik Rehman swim across a cold, dirty river to collect a bird that has fallen out of the sky. Saud examined it and found it was sitting on its eggs to keep them warm and tends to it so the bird can “return to his family obligation”. Their family has been operating the bird rescue for decades with the help of donations and other funding sources.
Shehzad also learned that black kites have no natural predator. So, when they are hurt, “their end is very slow and painful”.
Sen said there was no ‘clearcut’ answer as to why the brothers carry out this selfless act.
“We usually associate environmental work or people who are immersed in this kind of work as emotional labour. I get a bit wary of this kind of bleeding heart sentimentality that characterises all kind of environmental work,” said the filmmaker, who is currently doing his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“What struck me about them was this wry resilience they had in the face of the apocalypse – literally birds falling out of the sky. They had this unsentimental manner where they just got on with their work. Every time you asked them why they do what they do, there’s never a clear answer. I don’t think even they know.
“Some of it could be for the love of the birds. Or perhaps religious credit, but there is no clearcut answer. It’s a form of life they have chosen to inhabit and it’s too dense to delineate in one or two reasons,” he said.
Though his aim was to focus on the plight of these birds, Sen found that having spent three years with the family, their story of living in a time of social unrest in India also needed to be told. As Indian Muslims, they were left anxious over the government’s controversial 2019 Citizenship Act which granted citizenship to migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – but not if they are Muslim. This led to violent protests and demonstrations across the country.
“The last two years have been fairly chaotic in Delhi, but the film is not meant to be a snapshot of political turmoil,” said Sen. “Of course, when you focus on the characters, the outside world inevitably leaks in.“Not that the two brothers are indifferent to what is going on, but their focus is firmly on their chosen mission even as the real world haemorrhages into their space.”
Sen hoped his film inspired audiences to feel a kinship with the black kites and their bird relatives.
“I want audiences to leave the theatre and immediately look up,” he said.
“I hope that it gets people thinking about the entanglement between human and non-human species and how the city itself becomes an ecological space for human and non-human lives. [It is] A contemplation in the sense of kinship and this kind of neighbourliness.”
And despite the accolades for this new documentary, Sen said that “making the film was the biggest reward”. ■ All That Breathes will be in UK cinemas
on Friday (14)