Essay Example: The Last Lions Documentary

Several wild animal documentaries have been produced by various producers, which attracts many viewers as most people enjoy wildlife due to the beauty it comes alongside. One of the most lovely and loved documentaries that ever hit the screens in recent times is a famous one known as The Last Lions. It is a fuzzy and cute documentary, with several types of species featured. This documentary was shot in the year 2011 and was directed by Derrick Joubert (Pinilla). The documentary was shot to educate the people on the various threats that face animals in the wilderness including wildfires, stampeding hooves, and their worst enemy of all times, human beings. The movie is about a female lion who is under pressure from all these challenges in the wilderness that it encounters in the attempt to protect its curbs. The documentary was outstanding and attracted the viewership of many people all over the world. With its teachings on the life of the lions in the jungle and all the risks that are there, the documentary won several awards among them, The Evening Standard Brits Film Wards of 2012, Jackson Wild Media Awards of 2011, Missoula International Wildlife Film Festival 2013, South African Film and Television Awards 2013 (Pinilla).

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The documentary is about a lioness and how she was bringing up her curbs alone and went through some hard time as single parenthood is never easy. During the making of this documentary, several people were interviewed, including Lenolkoru, who was the head in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, where the documentary was shot. In this documentary, Jouberts features a mother lion who was raising her cubs alone amid the struggles and risks that the young lions face while in the jungle. Different devastating events makes the lioness and her cubs to migrate to a remote island in Duba where there were buffaloes, hyenas, and crocodiles as well as the male lions who would-be predators to her cubs (Pinilla).

The film also features and provides evidence of illegal hunting that takes place there and other behaviors that put the lives of these animals at risk. It was hard for the lioness and her cubs to survive on the island as it was surrounded by water, and it was not comfortable crossing the waters as she had to look for food for her cubs. In the movie, the lioness seems to have emotions and keeps remembering some instances through several flashbacks of her past (Pinilla). The lioness does not give up but continues to care for her cubs, getting them food, and protecting them from their enemies. It was, however, not easy for her as a single mother to her cubs. Other times she could look devastated and with a look of giving up with her wounds all over her body sustained during fierce fights while hunting and protecting her cubs.

The documentary uses some stylistic devices such as personification, where the mother lion is given traits such as those of a human being to include emotions, and mother, where she is even referred to as a single mother. Flashback has also been used as a stylistic device in the film, where the director talks about the lioness remembering certain instances in her past life through flashbacks. Additionally, the firm has been used to portray characters such as caring, braveness, aggressiveness, and commitment. The lioness is caring for her cubs as she has to hunt and feed them as well as protecting them from the enemy. She also fights fierce battles to defend her cubs, which makes her sustain injuries that paint out an image of a brave lioness. She is aggressive in that she knows she has to overcome several hurdles to take care of her cubs. The aspect of personification used in the film works for me as it teaches me how to be committed, brave, and caring to my treasures. It also makes me emotional and helps me to see the need to take care of the wild animals and to fight illegal hunting which is a significant threat to the safety of these animals as the lioness had to counter several poachers who were attempting to put her life and that of her cubs into danger.

Works Cited

Pinilla, Edward. "The Last Lions Documentary." YouTube, 16 Mar. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KBu2ZIEjCk.