Recorded in the first dictionary of the Egyptian language is the hieroglyph of the giraffe: sr. In this documentary the animal emerges as a recurring motif, appearing sometimes directly, sometimes on the margins, across 16 fragmentary episodes that depict a panorama of human activity. The film’s 91 narrative tableaus lead to sites, such as the banks of the Nile, a ceramic factory near Beijing, an island in the Western Pacific, a storage space of Anthropology, a reading room in New York, the Sahara desert and a runway in central Niger. Intertwining themes gradually evolve between past and present times, and includes the trajectories of exoticism, cultural artifacts, colonial relics, relations of power and the relativity of knowledge.

Presented at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.