The Challenge
25/03/20 — 8:30 p.m. | CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19
Theatiner Filmkunst
FRA, ITA 2016 | 70 min | Arabic with English subtitles | D: Yuri Ancarani
TALK: Heinz Peter Schwerfel (Artistic director, KINO DER KUNST), Daniel Sponsel (Artistic director, DOK.fest)
In cooperation with the DOK.fest München
The falcon travels in a private jet, the cheetah in a Lamborghini as sheiks from Qatar head off into the desert with their exotic pets. A falconry contest is on the agenda. The young men in their dazzling white thawb robes represent a world of absurd wealth, luxurious hobbies and splendid idleness. Secretly, however, they are driven by a yearning for the adventuresome life of their Bedouin ancestors. In the endless sand dunes, far away from civilization, they stage a trial of strength and endurance that keeps the thousand-year-old tradition of falconry alive.
In sublime cinemascope images, the Italian artist Yuri Ancarani (*1972, exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, NY, among others) has created a modern aristocratic portrait of the super rich that conjures up a neo-romantic image of the Orient – simultaneously strange and fascinating.