All That Breathes is a majestic, multi-dimensional documentary about the interconnectivity of man and nature, as two brothers try to help a threatened species.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 25, 2024

Shaunak Sen’s transcendent documentary unearths beauty in the squalor of India’s urbanity.

| Nov 2, 2023

The documentary places all forms of life at an equal footing, the act not dehumanising or brutalising any but propelling the need to acknowledge all as residents of the same community.

| Jul 20, 2023

Sen observes much that’s wrong or flawed about the modern world—from environmental degradation to displacement of creatures and good old fashioned human animosity—but never enough, he seems to be saying, to justify the breaking of one’s spirits.

| Apr 6, 2023

All That Breathes instills admiration and wonder while also subtly implicating human beings in a responsibility for the upkeep and furtherance of life.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 30, 2023

The blending of nature documentary with human drama and non-didactic political thesis, accompanied by almost spiritual music from the composer Roger Goula, is done to perfection in All That Breathes.

| Mar 27, 2023

All That Breathes presents a poetic, intensely beautiful story so precise that, at times, it feels staged but instead emerges from hours of painstaking care.

| Feb 17, 2023

Threaded through the main narrative we get glimpses of the sectarian tensions that blight modern India and cause additional anxiety. But wisely All That Breathes avoids trying to lean heavily on metaphors or push an agenda.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 15, 2023

Director Shaumak Sen and cinematographers Ben Bernhard, Rijo Das and Saumyananda Sahi give the audience a visual treat.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 15, 2023

It soars as high as the birds it depicts, while telling a compassionate story of two Muslim brothers trying to do their part in making the world a better place. It’s astonishing.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 15, 2023

Just seeing the work that goes into the help being provided for these birds is never less than fascinating.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 15, 2023

... another sample that demonstrates that for certain circles, the only way to digest poverty is to dress it up until it becomes unrecognizable. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 11, 2023

Simple in its slow, calm storytelling, but profound in the philosophical points it raised about how we are all connected in the vast ecosystem.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 9, 2023

In an age when we're constantly reminded of all that's bad, All That Breathes celebrates good things it's easy to forget: the wonder of life, the virtues of compassion and the human capacity to make the world better.

| Feb 9, 2023

These birds are utterly other, while their rescuers represent the best of us.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2023

Meditative, truthful film-making that deserves to be seen anywhere the human animal coexists with others.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 8, 2023

Sen’s mesmerising masterpiece is also a worrying look at how pollution and overpopulation are placing an intolerable strain on the balance between humans and nature.

| Feb 8, 2023

"All That Breathes" is a good movie and an Oscar-nominated one; I just quibble with whether it's actually a documentary. Its use of elaborate cinematic techniques suggests it's less fly-on-the-wall than moments played for posterity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2023

Especially telling is an observation on the loneliness of man as a species, b/c we are sentient. The birds, and the nature around them, are keeping each other company and only we stand alone in our modernity, pollution and war. Man to nature perfection.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 7, 2023

A documentary that argues for Nature within a larger ecosystem, equalizing humanity with the rats, fungi, and scavenger birds. The lack of human ego on display is inspiring.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 7, 2023