Cannes 2022: Delhi-based director's documentary 'All That Breathes' premieres at event

The 75th Cannes Film Festival has been the centre of attraction with a lot of noteworthy films having availed a screening at the global event. Since India was named the 'Country of Honour', several films from the country have been bringing laurels after screening at the film festival. Adding to the list, Delhi-based filmmaker Shaunak Sen's documentary All That Breathes premiered in the Special Screening segment at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

The official Instagram handle of the documentary shared pictures of the cast and crew walking the red carpet ahead of the screening. Shaunak Sen was clicked by the shutterbugs along with his co-producers Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer and also Charlotte Much Bengsten, Nadeem Shehzad, Mohammad Saad, Salik Rehman, and Florrie Priest.

Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen's documentary screened at Cannes Film Festival

According to PTI, the documentary had also won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2022. For the unversed, the story of the documentary chronicles two siblings from Wazirabad, a village in New Delhi. Mohammed Saud and Nadeem Shehzad work from their derelict basement and rescue and treat injured birds, especially the Black Kites.

The Delhi brothers are the focal point of the film and their story zooms out to document a larger snapshot of the city, where the air is toxic and the ground is on a slow burn of social turmoil.

It is pertinent to note that the 90-minute long documentary is Sen's second directorial after the acclaimed 2016 film Cities of Sleep, which was based on the homeless scouting for places to sleep in the capital city. Last week, All That Breathes was acquired by a US-based cable network. After its release in the US late this year, the documentary will debut on the streaming service in 2023.

This year, apart from All That Breathes, another short film to be presented at Cannes Film was Festival Nauha’ in Le Cinef by Pratham Khurana. 

Earlier, the filmmaker, who is an alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), had told PTI that he is thrilled that his film has joined 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," Sen said.

IMAGE: Instagram/festivaldecannes/laestatuilla