Dating back some 4,000 years,
the sport of falconry is still widely practiced today. With origins in the Middle
East, falconry is a highly-regarded pastime, which, in some cultures, also
serves as a male rite of passage.
Italian filmmaker Yuri
Ancarini explores an annual falconry competition that takes place in the vast
desert of Qatar in his visual masterpiece, "The
Challenge." Ancarini combines the spectacular desert landscape of the Arabian
Peninsula with a dramatic soundtrack and candid moments to give an intimate look
into the world of the falconers. Several types of predators from the raptor
species of birds are used in falconry. Ancarini focuses on hunters with
majestic hawks and falcons as they embark on a testosterone-filled weekend of
fast cars, motorcycles, meat-feasting, big spending and competition.
The three and a half-minute static
shot in the opening scene is a precursor to the patient cinematography and infinite
landscapes that are to come. Shortly thereafter, a Qatari sheikh and his pet
cheetah set out for the desert roads in a black Lamborghini. Another sheikh travels
by plane with his birds. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think because the birds’
eyes were covered and they seemed agitated, constantly turning their heads back
and forth while in flight. However, there is a decadence to the scene and thus
the consolation that the birds are well-cared for. Anticipation builds as a
group of motorcyclists converge on the highway with their extravagant gold-plated
bikes. A scene in the desert where boys will be boys revving their engines and
racing around the sand followed by a group of men feasting on a huge carcass of
meat with their bare hands to one of the final scenes when the sheikhs are engaged in a bidding war for a prized falcon to the closing scene
when we finally see what all the fuss is about, makes it clear that Ancarini’s
protagonist of "The Challenge" is none
other than this annual event, which celebrates the sport of falconry. The
sportsmen themselves are the supporting characters.
My basic requirement of a
good film is that it transport you to another world and "The Challenge" exceeds this requirement. Ancarini presents a
compelling portrait of what one culture considers “man’s best friend.”
The director is in the
middle of a North American tour with the film, which included a screening by
the Museum of Modern Art in its annual series, New Directors/New Films. I saw
the fascinating film and asked Ancarini about the ancient sport, the importance
of the birds to this culture and his unique style of storytelling.
How did this annual event of Falconry come to your
attention?
I discovered it out of
curiosity. Qatar is a country that until five years ago was unknown to
everybody, with a very poor desert, until they found gas fields. Then it became
an important place for the world economy. They began to build, they invited
artists and the greatest architects of the world. It was a country that I did
not know and I was intrigued, since it was a protected country for a long time,
and it was closed to us. As it often happens, I went there with some ideas but
they didn’t work. I went back several times, and I started to better understand
their habits and traditions, then I came up with the idea of "The Challenge."
I have some questions about the animal aspect of this
film…Could you explain to me why the falcons were turning their heads back and
forth on the plane? Were they feeling anxiety from their eyes being covered?
And why are they covered so much through the film… during the auction, for
example?
All the animals you see are
pets. There is a special love towards their animals and the falcon is a
venerated creature, almost idolized. There is a very ancient manuscript, dated
back to Middle Ages, that tells a story about the fact that the hawk is one of
the most violent predators in the ecosystem. If you are pointed out by a Falcon,
there is no hope to survive. The same story states that the hawk feels guilty
because of his violent attitude and to satisfy this sense guilt, decides to be
tamed and to become a companion of humans. The hawk, when he looks, attacks!
With the cap, he is calm. So, in the house or in a sheltered environment or when
hunting, the head is not covered. Otherwise, he wears a cap. The head movement
was an unexpected surprise and it was probably due to the fact that the falcon
has a kind of internal GPS in his head. So, being on a plane, he perceives the
change of heights and shift. This is an important moment of the film.
The relationship they have
with the hawks is almost maniacal to the point that some sheiks do not want
their own hawk being watched by strangers. Falconry is an ancient practice of
hunting. I tried to represent the reality, so criticizing hunting is up to the
viewer. The movie wants to represent a reality and there are more
interpretations that the viewer can think about.
Regarding the pigeon bating, do the sportsmen have
any remorse for the pigeons? The reason why I ask is because they showed an
extraordinary affection for the falcons beyond just seeing them as an object
for hunting. I also noticed the gentle handling and transport of the pigeons,
so I was wondering if the sportsmen feel anything, such as gratitude, towards
them.
The hawk has to eat once a
day at sunset and it cannot eat on the ground except when there is a particular
situation as in the plane scene, but it is better if the falcon eats while
flying. The pigeon is the best prey to give to a hawk. The falcon is the animal
that flies the highest and the only one who can stare at the sun. This means
that a man who owns a hawk is closer to God. They feel a sense of enormous
gratitude for all that the hawk means symbolically. The European falconers
believe that you should not touch the hawks because they are plumed animals but
the sheiks love them too much and they want to live very close to them.
Falconry is a tradition that dates back many years in
the Arab culture. Are the new generations of young people embracing it and
keeping it alive?
Qatar, before discovering
gas, had nothing except their tradition of desert life. For them, tradition is
everything and in fact for me, this is not a film about falconry but on
traditions in modern times. A child becoming a falconer represents the passage
into adulthood.
In general terms, can you talk about your process of
putting a documentary together from the moment you decide on a subject?
I
don’t have a precise script but I start with an image I have seen or an
intuition. I find myself very often in surreal situations that I live intensely
and I try to shoot in that moment and I try to transmit the same feeling to the
viewer. While I am shooting, I start to mentally edit and I share my view with
my sound engineer, who is blind and he is always with me during the
construction of the film. For me the sound is the screenplay of the movie.
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