Tending to Birds of Prey: In Conversation with Mohammad Saud and Salik Rehman

Screened at the Dharamshala International Film Festival, All That Breathes (2022) by Shaunak Sen is a searing yet meditative documentary on inter-species connectedness. It tells the story of three brothers running a makeshift avian hospital in Wazirabad, Delhi, where they tend to black kites. Harmed by glass-coated kite-string and air pollution but rejected from institutional care due to their carnivorous diet, the predator birds find refuge in the brothers’ basement. The brothers—Nadeem Shehzad, Mohammad Saud and Salik Rehman—remain engaged in rescue and rehabilitation operations on meagre funds while running a soap-dispensing business on the side.

The documentary tangentially addresses the concern around sectarian citizenship debates, implying that the story of the Muslim brothers’ attempt to save a depleting species parallels their own rising precarity in a majoritarian landscape. The social unrest in Delhi following the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) especially portends a seismic realignment of power. This leaks into the diegetic world through sounds of nearby protest, a changing ambience, and finally, through direct threats to life in the form of mob violence. Negotiating the many challenges that assail them, the brothers build a narrative of care in lyrical kinship with the kites.

All That Breathes not only follows the siblings through their motivations, processes, and journeys through the logistical challenges of this unusual pursuit, but also establishes them as thinkers with rich inner worlds. Their exchanges and voiceovers reveal a radical affection for the birds, as well as an intense, vicarious yearning for the limitless skies they inhabit. Each with a distinct personality, Nadeem and Saud appear as the wiser, older kites to Salik’s fledgling curiosity and endearing vulnerability. In this conversation with Najrin Islam, Saud and Salik (who were present at the screening of the film at DIFF 2022) talk about their work in depth, addressing the concerns that continue to inform their obsession with saving black kites. 

^{(Featured Image: Still from All That Breathes (2022) by Shaunak Sen. Image courtesy of the director and the Dharamshala International Film Festival; Video by Aprajita Gupta.)}

To learn more about the films screened at the 2022 edition of the Dharamshala International Film Festival, please click here, here, here and here.