The Bones is a stunning, cinematic exploration of the high-stakes world of dinosaur bone trading, where obsessive collectors compete with museums, scientists, and high-end auction houses to own a piece of the past. It’s a story of intrigue, an illicit caper at the collision of science, commerce, and a dark colonial legacy.
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Paleontologist Bolor Minjin, the first scientist to ever repatriate fossils that had been stolen from Mongolia, travels through her homeland training the next generation of Mongolians to be the guardians of the bones. In Morocco, Nizar Ibrahim leads a team into the Saharan desert on a quest to unearth the next great scientific discovery, but must negotiate with fossil dealers who want big money for the same bones.
Meanwhile, French collector and fossil dealer Francois Escuillier introduces us to the questionable world of buying and selling dinosaur bones, which today can be worth millions of dollars. And eminent paleontologist Jack Horner—the man upon whom Jurassic Park is based—changes the very concept of a fossil’s value by breaking them open, searching for molecular clues that will help him resurrect an actual dinosaur.
Part international thriller, part meditation on the nature of existence, the film reveals the hidden world of passionate, globetrotting scientists and fossil dealers battling over the meaning of The Bones…and our uncertain future.
