Flight of Fancy: Falconry, Affluence and Yuri Ancarani's 'The Challenge'

An arresting film about a rarely seen country, The Challenge uses competitive falconry to proffer a picture of life among Qatar's upper crust. Through masterful shots of birds in flight and stilled images of men made miniscule in the vast desert, Yuri Ancari has documented the collision of past tradition and present-day privilege in the Gulf, writes Anthony Carew.

Additional keywords:
Asian cinema, Middle East, wealth, masculinity, sport, sheik, Bedouin, capitalism, experimental documentary.