Synopsis

Seen from space, Earth is a beautiful blue orb. Viewed more closely, the Eastern Hemisphere gives way to the Middle East — the Levant, the Euphrates, Syria and Iraq. The ruins of Assyria stand mute against a backdrop of overcast skies. A winged statue of an Assyrian king tall as a building stares out into the void. The stillness is broken by the roar of two Russian-built MIG jet fighters passing low over the ruins. One drops a bomb that explodes; the other drops one near the winged statue that buries itself in the soil and doesn’t go off. It’s 2011, and the world is changing.

Aakil, a 12-year-old Syrian boy who loves birds, sits in a tree sketching a dove on a limb. The dove explodes in a shower of feathers, startling him. Flat on his back, he watches a falcon fly off with his fresh kill. He is electrified by this vision! He runs home to his grandfather Rafiq’s café to tell him what he’s seen, but Rafiq and his friend Fateen, a teacher and political dissident, have their hands full with a souk full of angry anti-government protestors. The Arab Spring has come to their little town. Rafiq has to hide Fateen from the local police chief, who may be acting on a tip from an informant at Fateen’s school.

That night Aakil, Rafiq and Fateen watch the news. Syrian President Assad vows to fight the “enemies of the people” to the bitter end. A prince from a wealthy Arab nation is coming to bring humanitarian aid to refugees. The men spar over the state of the country and foreign “do-gooders.” They also argue over why Aakil’s school has ordered all library books immediately returned — he’s just borrowed a book about falconry. The men run out of words when Aakil asks them what happened to his parents.

On the way to school, Aakil and his grandfather get covered in bird droppings as a massive starling swarm swirls overhead. Aakil sees Fateen giving a subversive lecture about Syrian history to a small group of students. The librarian harasses Aakil to return The Art of Falconry by Frederick II. Aakil’s best friend Dani, 14, chides him for being too scared to talk to Jameela, a girl he likes. A Russian MIG fighter jet buzzes the local mosque where Rafiq prays, and then buzzes the school. The next day, Aakil walks to school with his grandfather Rafiq for the last time.

The Russian MIG returns, destroying Aakil’s little town. It is a harvest demon come dancing on the hot wind. Aakil’s school is blown to rubble. The souk is almost unrecognizable. In the confusion, Fateen is freed from the black sedan, which crashes into a flower delivery truck. Aakil finds Rafiq’s café is now a crater. He digs and claws with his bare hands at the pile of bricks but never finds his grandfather. Nor does he see Rafiq’s prayer beads in the dirt as he leaves. He returns home to find looters emptying his house; he recovers his drawings and tracings from The Art of Falconry, stuffs them into his backpack, and heads out into the night.

Aakil finds Dani again, just before the two are snatched up by government troops and driven to a refugee camp. “Don’t let anyone see you cry,” Dani tells him. In the melee for food and water, Aakil loses Dani, who is beaten and taken away by the guards. The prince from the wealthier Arab nation appears at the camp with a column of humanitarian relief trucks, dressed in a dark kafeeyah. His bodyguard rescues Aakil from a crazy old man who has become his nemesis. Aakil tries to protect the old man, thinking he’ll be killed. The bodyguard is really the prince, and the prince a body double. The prince is impressed with Aakil’s compassion toward others.

Aakil stows away in one of the trucks and discovers that the prince has three falcons! He also discovers the Assyrian ruins and sees the winged statue for the first time. Caught out, Aakil is locked away in a cargo container until the prince, going through his possessions, sees his falcon drawings and tracings. The prince frees him and shows him really why he is in Syria: to rescue the winged statue from insurgents who mean to destroy it. Though it is a monument to Ashur-nasir-pal II, an Assyrian king who ruled his people cruelly, it is an antiquity of immeasurable value.

Aakil is given a job tending to the prince’s birds, but in exchange he must work in the refugee camp each day delivering aid. Striking the bargain, Aakil asks that Dani be allowed to join him, lying that Dani is his cousin. Bassma, the prince’s bodyguard, fetches Dani from the camp. Aakil is introduced to the prince’s three falcons: Shaelyn and Horus, two older peregrines, and Gawain, a juvenile he will raise himself. The prince teaches Aakil about these majestic birds — their breast bone and muscle structure, their air-intake nose-bone allowing them to keep breathing in a 240 mph stoop, their pointed wing tips, their ability to pull 25 G’s in a turn (a jet fighter can pull 9). The peregrine’s vision is explored and at several critical points in the story, all is seen from the birds’ POV.

His early trials with Gawain involve many errors. He nearly loses Gawain at one point, but eventually retrieves the bird. He becomes even more determined when the prince challenges him about ever becoming a falconer. Aakil learns to “become invisible” in working with the birds and to appreciate the spiritual strength found in falconry: “Whilst the slave is on his path toward Allah, he is like a bird with two wings — hope and fear.” After overcoming more challenges, Aakil has become a falconer! And a man, as he has just reached his 13th birthday.

The insurgents are within a few kilometers of the dig site. Aakil and Gawain are followed home by drones operated by the insurgents. The winged statue is closer to being rescued. It is tipped over on its side by cranes and steel cables are fastened at its wrists and ankles so helicopters can lift it out. Abdul, the prince’s personal historian, has been sneaking around the dig site at night looking for secret passages and doors; he means to sabotage the rescue. Dani and Bassma confront him as he climbs back out of the pit wearing a bomb belt; he condemns them as “idolators.” Bassma leaps on him and they tumble over the side, setting off the unexploded bomb buried in the soil. Abdul and Bassma are killed and Dani is grievously wounded.

The next morning, four Sikorsky Sky Cranes come in to lift away the winged statue. The insurgents attack with shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles. The prince gives the order to release the payload, saving the helicopter crews — but as the winged statue falls into the pit, shattering, he disappears in clouds of dust rising from what appears to have been a fake piece of gypsum all along, a kind of Cardiff Giant / Trojan Horse.

Aakil takes the birds and commandeers a relief truck, only to run out of gas. He releases Shaelyn and Horus and takes Gawain with him on foot, hidden in his jacket. He makes the long journey west toward the ocean, “becoming invisible” to avoid notice and capture. A sniper has Aakil in his crosshairs but is distracted by a cell phone, sparing the boy. Aakil tries to feed Gawain, but he won’t eat. He takes off the bird’s jesses and bells, leaving them behind. Finally reaching the sea, Aakil is helped aboard a small rowboat by a family fleeing to Europe. The falcon Gawain has died in his arms. Later, on a European beach, Aakil and the others are arrested by local police.

Meanwhile, life goes on in Syria. Shaelyn and Horus have established a nest and have a new clutch of eggs. As Horus goes out looking for more food, he flies over the dig site. A man in a dark kafeeyah who resembles the prince in his shape and gait puts his shoulder to a wall at what was the base of the winged statue, pushing in a door to what may be the path to an underground treasure room. Horus’ call can be heard echoing in the air as the screen fades to black.