Hansal Mehta says All That Breathes is 'class apart' than Oscar-winning Navalny

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta heaped praises on Oscar nominee documentary All That Breathes in his recent tweet on Sunday (March 26). The director called it a “class apart” than Daniel Roher’s Navalny, which won against Shaunak Sen directorial at the Academy Awards this year. 

Taking to his Twitter handle, Mehta wrote, “So I found the #Navalny documentary very important as a political story and very ordinary as a film. Go ahead. Crucify me for my opinion. But #AllThatBreathes is a class apart. Far more depth, very political also and definitely much more cinematic.”

Check out the tweet here: 

So I found the #Navalny documentary very important as a political story and very ordinary as a film. Go ahead. Crucify me for my opinion. But #AllThatBreathes is a class apart. Far more depth, very political also and definitely much more cinematic.

— Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) March 26, 2023

Navalny details the 2020 assassination attempt of Russian opposition leader and former presidential candidate Alexei Navalny, in which he was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent.

On the other hand, All That Breathes revolved around two Delhi brothers, who have devoted their lives to rescuing and treating injured birds, especially the black kite. It shows their journey as they struggle to care for the birds along with other tiny creatures in the backdrop of Delhi’s smog-choked skies.

More about All That Breathes

All That Breathes released in January 2022 at the Sundance Film Festival. Following the screening, HBO announced that it had acquired the documentary's worldwide television rights. After the theatrical release in the United States through Submarine Deluxe and Sideshow, the film was broadcast on HBO Max. 

The much-loved documentary has won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and the Golden Eye award for the best documentary at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Meanwhile, the other two nominees from India, Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers and RRR track Naatu Naatu both managed to win in Best Documentary Short Film and Best Original Song categories respectively.