Aner Etxebarria Moral

In September 2015 there were 400 years since the slaying of 32 Basque whalers in Iceland.

In 1955, fascinated by the ingenious pigeon hunting with wooden paddles and nets, Orson Welles directed the documentary The Land of the Basques. Today, from a mountain hut on the border between Navarre and France, Gerardo Damboriena, a veteran pigeon hunter, reveals to us in basque the secrets of this more than 700-year-old tradition, now on the verge of extinction.

During his career as a vet, Alfonso Bañeres has recovered hundreds of birds of prey and wild animals. But among all of them one stand out among others. Tabira tells the story of a family of veterinarians who adopted a chick that nobody wanted. The unexpected arrival of a raptor ends up becoming a daughter and a high-flying sister, changing their lives forever. A year later, the winds carry Irati’s and Alfonso’s words, reminding them of the love they feel for the one that will always be their best friend: a Harris’s Hawk called Tabira.

From inside his yurt deep within the heart of the Taiga, Bayandalai an elder of the Dukhas tribe muses about the significance of life and death in the largest forest on Earth. He is the last of the great reindeer herders of the Taiga.

How would you feel if you were a mother of two families? A mother of a human family and of a wild family that decided thousands of years ago to live hidden, forever, in the heart of the forest. This is the story of Joy, a young ranger who combines the education of her two children, Favour and Abie, with her commitment for the protection of the only family of mountain gorillas that lives in the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Uganda. A family called Nyakagezi, formed by 9 of the approximately last 1,000 mountain gorillas still living in freedom on our planet. Day after day, Joy and her colleagues ensure the safety of these 9 great primates, preventing poaching from ending the lives of those with whom we share 98% of our DNA. So that tomorrow Favour and Abie can meet their brothers, the mountain gorillas, and inherit their mother’s legacy.