The Last Lions (Dereck Joubert, 2011): USA

Reviewed by: Demi Mellett. Veiwed at the: Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011

In my opinion, The Last Lions was a very informative movie. It showed how true wild animals struggle to survive every day. The cinematography in this film really stood out to me. The beautiful sunsets and up-close shots of the animals were meraculous. Although I found this movie to be a bit sad, I would still reccomend it to any person from the ages of 15 and up.

The Last Lions is a documentary about the life struggles of a lioness named Moditaw and her determination to make it on her own. This movie was very moving to me. Not only did the director (Dereck Joubert) show the struggles that wild animals go through on a daily basis but also it brought to the audiences’ awareness that lions, among other wild animals, are running out of space to live which is causing conflict for them all. Moditaws perseverence is amazing. Her mate dies, she has no pack, and she is struggling to survive along with her three cubs. Moditaw not only has to move to a new location once outed by her pack, but she has to cross a river to get to her new area. She is faced with the daily challenges of protecting her cubs from danger and finding weak buffalo to feed her cubs and herself.

This movie tells us how safari hunting is an increasing problem and soon, if humans continue taking over more land, we will not have any more wild lions left. In this movie, the narrator, Jeremy Irons, brings to the attention of the audience that 50 years ago there were approximatly 450,000 wild lions and today there are merely 20,000 left.  The film was shot in Africa over a time period of 4 years where the sunsets and wilderness are beautiful which made the every shot that much better.

The lighting, editing, cinematography, and music choice were all fantastic. The different angles of the cameras showed every little detail of what was going on in Moditaw’s life. The up-close shots made me feel like I was on a safari in Africa myself. All of the different colors from the natural lighting and sunsets in Africa made all of the cinematography stand out compared to everything else.

The Last Lions resembled the movie The Lion King to me. Not only did I relate them because they are both about lions, but because they both show how animals are trying to survive as well as striving for the best they can be no matter what challenges are standing in their way. Lions are the fittest compared to most animals in Africa and even though Moditaw went through so many struggles, she overcame all of the obstacles that were thrown towards her. This movie also reminded me of Gorillas In the Mist with Dian Fossey and her determination to help conserve land to shed some light on endangered gorillas. To me, it seemed the director of The Last Lions was trying to do the same for lions in Africa as Dian Fossey did for her gorillas. Overall, I really enjoyed this film and would say the director and cinematographer did an extravagant job on this film.