PRODUCTIONS: THE KING OF THE SWEEPER

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G.Pancaldi, A.Ojetti, A.D'Onofrio

SD Cinematografica

30'

16 mm

On the verge of extinction, the last griffon vultures in Sardinia are flighting a desperate daily battle for survival. The film depicts this huge glider with almost three meters of wingspread flying over the mountains of Barbagia, one of the wildest and most enchanting spots in Sardinia. The camera carefully follows the parent birds as they take turn defending their one large, hairless offspring. They alternate their long period at the nest with exhausting flights in search of the food that becomes more and more scarce. The griffon vultures of Sardinia are now being aided in their struggle by members of the Italian League for the Protection of Birds. Through supplies of meat and attentive surveillance they have made the future of these birds a little less uncertain.
Though modern society denies the Sardinian vultures their traditional carcasses, every large city accumulates huge amounts of food refuse on its outskirts. This enormous mass provides nourishment for numerous animals.
The herring gull is certainly one of the animals that knows how to best exploit co-habitation with man. Open-air refuse dumps with their limitless food supply have allowed these birds to greatly increase their numbers. But there is a time of the year when the gulls abandon all this to move to wilder, less spoiled area of the Italian peninsula. During the mating season, they meet in noisy, crowded colonies and compete for tiny spaces on cliffs descending into the sea.
Our cameraman, Giancarlo Pancaldi, followed them to the island of Capraia and filmed every phase of their reproductive cycle against an extraordinary beautiful background.