SD CINEMATOGRAFICA was formed in 1961 as a production company. Since its founding, the company has produced Films, Variety Programmes, and Science and Cultural documentaries for the Italian public broadcaster RAI and other leading international television companies. In recent years the company has focused on wildlife, Science and History documentaries with such success that it now counts National Geographic Channels, Discovery Channels, TF1, ARTE, NHK, TSR, ARD/BR, PBS and ZDF, as well as RAI and Mediaset, among its clients. Many SD documentaries have won major international prizes at the world’s leading festivals, including Academy Award, Emmy and Banff nominations. Today SD Cinematografica has over 800 hours of programming to its name. [abs]
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A. D'Onofrio, F. Carbone, F. Petretti, G. Mammolotti
SD Cinematografica
26'
HD
The story of a hunting falcon is the cue for a journey into the world of nature. Falconers and birds of prey tell a real-life story about the survival of rare species and those on the verge of extinction. Going back to the Middle Ages, to the time of Frederick II of Sweden and the beginning of ornithology, it is possible to reconstruct the various stages of the destruction of nature in the Mediterranean. The film deals with the erroneous relationship between the hunter and the environment, the absurd plundering of small raptors or their eggs for bird-raising and the problem of animal collectors. Our protagonist is "Flash", a goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) stolen from its nest and raised by its falconer owner to be a hunter. "Flash" remembers its infancy and later life, re-living its most crucial moments. This gives us a pretext to illustrate the lack of equilibrium between man and the environment and to denounce the barbarities humans perpetrate on birds of prey.