Against the darkening backdrop of New Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protecting one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite.
Yet All that Breathes is never cutesy or sentimental. The daily tasks involved in kite conservation prompt Nadeem and Saud to musings on the human condition that follow the animist example set by their late mother. It is from her outlook on the interconnectedness of all living things that the film takes its title: “One shouldn’t differentiate between all that breathes.”
“All That Breathes” is understandably besotted with these eccentric men who’ve devoted so much of their lives to the welfare of a creature that most of their neighbors would sooner ignore. Eeven Saud and Shehzad are liable to think of the kites as a nuisance, as we see in an early moment when one of the birds steals a pair of glasses from their child-like intern Salik, who mourns their loss for the entire film.
