Our beautiful gyrfalcon, 'sabre', in season 1, episode 10 of "siberia" | Joanne Bentley

While working on "Aloft" in Winnipeg in the winter of 2013, we were contacted by James Winterstern (HJW Films), one of the assistant directors to NBC's "Siberia" series. James had a story-thread he wanted to explore - the discovery of a trapped bird-of-prey being rescued by the protagonists. As the script supervisors were Russian, they'd kept everything very accurate - right down to the Cyrillic signage. As such, it was an imperative that even a non-human character be contextually correct for the episodes James was proposing to give depth to through the use of a bird-of-prey. Enter Captain 'Sabre'. The weather conditions were the coldest experienced in the Winnipeg area in 50 years. 'Sabre' had never been free-flown in this setting before. And yet, when cameras rolled, our beautiful Gyrfalcon melded seamlessly with his human acting partners, leapt into the sky, and wheeled in exultation at his freedom from what would certainly have been a sad and lonely demise had he not been discovered. As the character of Johnny speaks, its hard not to imagine that these are the thoughts of the falcon himself; our spirits are lifted as we watch the free-flying falcon turning joyously above the treetops. We feel hope restored. Perhaps - just...perhaps...the characters will be rescued from the frightening circumstances they've been left to deal with, just as the lonely and terrified falcon was.