This content is for Monthly members only.
Log In
Join Now

saqra

Şirin Şimsek

saqra (2025) explores falconry in the United Arab Emirates as a site where tradition, gender, and spirituality intersect. Centered on the practice of Emirati falconer Ayesha Al Mansoori and her daughter, the film brings choreographed training rituals and desert landscapes into dialogue with a voiceover that weaves together personal reflection, research, and interview fragments. Rather than following a linear narrative, saqra unfolds through observation, association, and repetition.
Attentive to gesture, transmission, and the negotiation of care and authority across generations, the film traces the gendered contradictions embedded within falconry itself: the birds most valued for hunting are often female—larger, stronger, and long presumed to be male. Against this backdrop, Ayesha Al Mansoori emerges as a pioneering figure within a historically male-dominated field, passing on her knowledge to younger women, beginning with her daughter.
The falcon appears as a layered figure: a metaphor of freedom and control, and a spiritually charged presence. The world’s largest falcon hospital, under the direction of Dr. Margit Müller, introduces a further axis within the film, shaped by tensions between rationalization and empathy, protection and status. The title saqra adopts a feminized variation of the Arabic word for falcon, reflecting the film’s attention to female presence within a historically male-coded field.
Country: United Arab Emirates
Time: 21
Year: 2025