Falconry has a history that stretches back over 40 centuries. In the West, it was a prevailing passion of the medieval aristocracy, but its prestige continues undiminished in contemporary Arab culture. Three years of observing this form of hunting in the field have made it possible to capture the spirit of a tradition that today allows its practitioners to keep a close rapport with the desert, despite their predominantly urban lifestyle. Our guide to how they cross that threshold is a falconer taking his birds to compete in a tournament in Qatar. In the glaring light of an empty landscape, following flight lines and lures, we see 70 minutes of young men – not one woman – performing their leisure time activities in majestic calm. The film recounts a strange “desert weekend”, in which technological and anthropological microcosms hang in the air. Racing the sand track in a Lamborghini with a cheetah on the passenger seat. Climbing steep dunes with tuned SUVs. Sharing traditional meals in a tent. Drinking afternoon tea and checking smartphone in a royal salon with blue carpet and golden furniture. Transporting gyrfalcons in a private jetplane from cool mountain ranges to the desert (where the magnificent animals have an average survival time of about a month). What seems most exotic, remote and pathetically wrong at the beginning, draws irritatingly closer the longer we watch – as if we were looking into a distorted mirror, amplifying the very essence of our own petromodern behavioral patterns.

Yuri Ancarani (1972, Italy) is a visual artist and filmmaker. His work mixes documentary cinema and contemporary art, aiming to explore elements of life that are not visible from day to day. He has presented his works in national and international museums and exhibitions like the Fondazione Sandretto or the Guggenheim Museum in New York and several film festivals such as the Venice Film Festival. Some of his works include: Il Capo (2010), Piattaforma Luna (2011), Da Vinci (2012), San Siro (2014), Séance (2014).