The Challenge
Director
Yuri Ancarani
Producer
Christophe Gougeon ,
Fabrizio Polpettini,
Pierre Malachin,
Tommaso Bertani
Scenario
Yuri Ancarani
Rights Holder
Slingshot Films
DOP
Yuri Ancarani, Luca Nervegna, Jonathan Ricquebourg
Production
La Bête, Ring Film, Atopic
Falconry has a history that stretches back over 40 centuries. In the West, falconry 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. Among SUVs, Lamborghini, private jets and Mad Max-like dune bashing contests, THE CHALLENGE tells the story of an intense weekend in the desert.

Yuri Ancarani
An Italian visual artist. Born in 1972 in Ravenna, lives and works in both Ravenna and Milan. His works come from a continuous mingling of documentary cinema and contemporary art. His last films have been shown and awarded in more than a hundred international festivals – including Locarno, Venice, Toronto, SXSW, True/False – and in the most important museums of the world, like the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Venice Biennale and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Selected filmography
2016 The Challenge