Saving Spoonie

• DE 2025
• 83 min
• Director: Till Harms
• FSK: from 0 years
• Documentary: Original version with German voiceover and subtitles where applicable

Screenings:

• Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.
• Fri., June 26, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.
• Sat., June 27, 2026 - Wed., July 1, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.

An international task force of eccentric ornithologists pull out all the stops to save their protégé - the Spoonbilled Sandpiper - from extinction. In the process, scientific cooperation becomes a political and diplomatic challenge.

"Without Dr. Christoph Zöckler and a committed international group of ornithologists, the spoonbilled sandpiper would have died out long ago. As if that wasn't bad enough in itself, the flight path of the sparrow-sized wader, with its peculiar spoonbill, runs from Russia via North Korea and China to Myanmar, passing through the crisis regions of the last decade. The task force's work suddenly becomes a political challenge and a diplomatic balancing act between the Russians, Germans, Chinese, British and other members of the flyway.
While an ambitious breeding attempt in England threatens to fail, the Spoonbilled Sandpiper achieves unprecedented popularity in China. Affectionately called "Spoonie" by its fans, it becomes the poster boy of an awakening Chinese environmental movement. But while his fame is constantly growing, the number of real birds continues to decline dramatically, despite worldwide efforts. Eccentric bird lovers debate whether there are one, two or, as optimists believe, three hundred breeding pairs left in the world.
And so the tragicomedy about Spoonie's fate reflects the struggle for endangered diversity in a world that has become fragile.