Invisible Demons

Rivers turning into foam, hills made out of waste. New Delhi is a metropolis with millions of inhabitants and gigantic environmental issues. The city often finds itself on top of the list of most polluted cities in the world. This documentary focuses on the poorest: those without running water, those living in the street and experiencing trouble breathing, those who have to wash themselves in polluted rivers or those for whom the monsoons do not bring enough rain and the next year too much. The director lets the images speak for themselves.

He does not interview experts, only people such as a rickshaw driver or a lorry driver. There are a few personal reflections of the director himself and here and there an excerpt from a reportage by journalist Divya Wadhwa. There is no abundance in explanations or dialogue. The documentary only lasts seventy minutes, but grabs the viewer by the throat. The documentary terrifyingly displays how pollution and climate change rapidly change life in a metropolis. The powerful images are the work of three cameramen, deployed by the director. Their images are accompanied by the fantastic soundtrack of Finnish composer Kimmo Pohjonen. ‘Invisible Demons’ is pure cinema which in spite of its short duration depicts today’s climate issues very clearly.