AllMovie

Alan Parrot was born and raised in Maine, but became fascinated with training and breeding falcons as a child, and when he was 18 he emigrated to Iran, where falconry is a well-respected sport enjoyed by the wealthy and powerful. After looking after the Shah of Iran's birds for a while, Parrot began exporting falcons to the Middle East for the President of the United Arab Emirates. However, the legal falcon trade was soon supplanted by smugglers able to obtain rare and unusual birds for wealthy hobbyists in the Middle East (Parrot claims some birds can fetch as much as a million dollars), and as the world falcon population began to dwindle, Parrot quit the business and now acts as an advocate against the market in birds, which he now believes is unethical. Icelandic filmmakers Thorkell Hardarson and Orn Marino Arnarson profile Alan Parrot and present his tales of life in the falcon trade, which he describes as one of the most lucrative forms of contraband on Earth, in the documentary Feathered Cocaine; the film also includes some of Parrot's theories on the connection between falconry in the Middle East and international politics, and how his contacts in the falcon trade have led him to the current whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. Feathered Cocaine was an official selection at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.