Abata

In 1955, fascinated by the ingenious hunting of pigeons with wooden paddles and nets, Orson Welles directed the documentary The Land of Basques. Today, from a borda on the border between Navarre and France, Gerardo Damboriena, a veteran pigeon hunter, reveals in Basque the secrets of this tradition of more than 700 years, on the verge of extinction. 

In the beech forests along the Navarre-France border, 75-year-old Gerardo Damboriena keeps alive a 700-year-old tradition: hunting pigeons with nets, wooden paddles, and white flags — no weapons, no technology. Filmed by Orson Welles in 1955, it is now on the brink of disappearance, even as it becomes a tool for conservation. A tribute to a tradition struggling not to become a memory.

[Aner Etxebarria, Pablo Vidal, Director]​