Cannes 2022: Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes wins Golden Eye award for Best Documentary

Delhi-based filmmaker Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes won the L'Oeil d'Or, the Golden Eye award for the Best Documentary at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 28. This is the second consecutive year that an Indian documentary has come home with this award. Last year, Payal Kapadia from Mumbai bagged the L'Oeil d'Or for her film A Night of Knowing Nothing.

All That Breathes follows the lives of two brothers -- Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad -- who run a bird hospital in Delhi dedicated to rescuing injured black kites. The two 'kite brothers' care for thousands of these creatures, which fall daily from Delhi's smog-choked skies.

As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between the family and the neglected kites forms a poetic chronicle of the city's collapsing ecology and deepening social fault lines. The 90-minute documentary picked up the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

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In the award citation, the Cannes jury noted: "L'Oeil d'Or goes to a film that, in a world of destruction, reminds us that every life matters, and every small action matters. You can grab your camera, you can save a bird, you can hunt for some moments of stealing beauty, it matters. It is an inspirational journey in observation of three Don Quixotes who may not save the whole world but do save their world."

All That Breathes is Sen's second project after his 2016 documentary Cities Of Sleep, about homeless people searching for a place to sleep in Delhi.

Apart from Shaunak Sen, Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund was awarded Palme d'Or, the highest honour of the night for Triangle of Sadness, Korean director Park Chan-Wook received Best Director for Decision to Leave, Song Kang-ho won Best Actor for Broker, and Zar Amir Ebrahimi won Best Actress for Holy Spider among other winners.

(With inputs from IANS)