Invisible Demons

Invisible Demons begins with a long shot of a verdant garden with a paved pathway. At the end of the path, smoke appears. A man is fumigating the plants. Completing his work, he walks towards the camera, and the view of the plant matter is shrouded in smoke. Eventually, most of the garden is obscured by thick smog.

Invisible Demons is filled with observational shots like these, which examine polluted lives in Delhi at granular and grandiose scales. Jain’s work is a reflection on his own ‘air conditioned’ life, recognising his status of wealth and privilege amidst a city where pollutants frequently put the most vulnerable at further risk of disease and death.

The film is an eye-opening examination of the world’s most polluted capital city. We witness enormous wastelands, monsoon flooding, densely packed city streets, and warnings on the news to stay inside amidst rising levels of toxicity in the air. With a slow, sparse narration from its filmmaker, the film follows a tradition of city symphony films, building our understanding of life in Delhi’s air through direct and intimate forms of spectatorship.