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with either a revhead’s approval or an intellectualist’s dis The falcon swoops, the pigeon retreats – these two gladi
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from on high, gazing down at the balletic curve of their move race. From on high, the falcon dives and the distant ground
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less), scrawled like hieroglyphs in the sand. At night, once the surface. As the falcon presses in, the furious beating of the
men have tended to their engines by the light of their mobile pigeon’s wings grows louder. This chase engenders a kind
phones, the trucks are still shot from afar. In the nothing of bloodlust in the audience, a yearning for our hero to catch
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trucks gathered on the edge of a rise evokes birds gathering climaxes with the falconry equivalent of a money shot: that
atop a hill. And there’s an even more direct parallel between moment when the falcon takes down the pigeon, delivers the
birds and technology when some men play with a drone, GHDWK LQ WKLV DYLDQ VQXII PRYLH 7KH Ļ\LQJ DEUXSWO\ HQGV DV ZH
piloting a mechanical ‘bird’ over the sands. hit the ground, the hunter looking down at its feet, squashing
3GD "G@KKDMFD features a recurring motif whereby animal its victim, the pigeon now a mess of torn feathers and blood.
speed and motor speed are contrasted: when the cheetah is 7KH ĺQDO LPDJHV DUH RI WKH VDQGDOV RI PHQ HQWHULQJ WKH IUDPH
inside the car – or the peregrine falcons, the private jet – these this visual eventually lost in a disorienting kaleidoscope of
creatures, the fastest in the world, inhabit the technology that VDQG DQG VWRQH WKH FUHGLWV WKHUHDIWHU UROO DFFRPSDQLHG RQO\
has outpaced them. But, if the falcons are cooped up for much by the ambient sounds of the desert.
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"G@KKDMFD, eventually, arrives at its climax: the falcon becomes DUH FROOLVLRQV EHWZHHQ (DVW DQG :HVW UHOLJLRQ DQG FDSLWDO
the hero of the narrative, and the pigeon, its luckless foil. ism, community and individuality, repression and freedom,
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leap into the competition. First, we witness the sights and DQG PDFKLQH 7KHVH DUH WKHPHV ERWK VSHFLĺF WR 4DWDU DQG
sounds of preparation. The sheikhs take their seats on row broadly universal, Ancarani’s ‘experimental’ documentary
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polloi gather in their trucks, ready to chase the action across seen to be believed.
the sands. The announcer, when not introducing contestants,
repeats the emergency contact number for any spectators who Anthony Carew is a Melbourne-based critic. m
might get lost in the desert, and reminds the men driving to be
careful, for ‘there are also children in the cars’. One of the birds Endnotes
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its beak buffed with a motorised polisher, the rough edges of DFFHVVHG 2FWREHU
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in silence, there’s a sudden run of words: the commentator 2FWREHU
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this delightful turn of phrase is an accurate translation). 4DWDUp The New York Times 6HSWHPEHU KWWSV ZZZ
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camera strapped to the bird of prey’s hood. The images are S
twitchy, uneasy, moving fast – a contrast to the static com 6 Ancarani, in ‘The Challenge 4 $p RS FLW
positions that show the men in their leisure. These few early <XUL $QFDUDQL TXRWHG LQ 7KRP %HWWULGJH o&KHHWDK YV /DPER
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ZH ZDWFK IURP WKH IDOFRQpV SHUVSHFWLYH PLG ĻLJKW PLG 8 Ancarani, in ‘The Challenge 4 $p RS FLW
tournament. And the results are some of the most beautiful 6HH 6DKDU .KDQ o4DWDUpV )DVFLQDWLQJ )L[DWLRQ ZLWK )DOFRQVp
images in cinema history: the bird ascending to godly height, Paste -XO\ KWWSV ZZZ SDVWHPDJD]LQH FRP
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tracks below like crop circles, dust rising heavenward from 2FWREHU
the ridges of dunes. The bright blue skies around us, we soar 10 <XUL $QFDUDQL TXRWHG LQ '- 3DQJEXUQ o7ZR :RUGV 4DWDUL
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There’s no score, just evocative sound design: distant inter IDOFRQU\ VXUUHDO ŷOP \XUL DQFDUDQL! DFFHVVHG }2FWREHU
jections of engines and wheels the only things encroaching 11 Ancarani, in ‘The Challenge 4 $p RS FLW
RQ}WKH EHDWLQJ RI ZLQJV DQG WKH EORZLQJ RI WKH ZLQG 12 ibid.

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