This documentary looks at the 2015 slaying of the majestic head of two lion prides in Zimbabwe, by a trophy-hunting American dentist. Sadly it raises more questions than it answers
T
here are a lot of unanswered – possibly unanswerable – questions in the air at the moment. Questions such as what prompts a husband to drug his wife and, for a decade, invite strange men over to his house to rape her while she lies unconscious in the marital bed? Or: what kind of a person do you have to be to hang around with a convicted child sexual offender and billionaire who is exercising his perversions in plain sight, even if you are not yourself fully involved with said perversions? Or: if a year into a presidency you already have citizens being killed in the street by uniformed thugs barely a notch above a militia, what happens next?
It’s almost a relief to have to turn away and consider for a moment an older, slightly smaller question; namely, what makes someone want to kill an animal for sport? Not for food, not in defence of a home or family or livestock, just for fun. Just to be able to say they did it and take a picture with the corpse to prove it.
It becomes even more unfathomable (although yes, of course, the principle remains the same) when the way to killing has to be paved by guides and other hunters – because you don’t even have the skills to find and stalk animals yourself. Added to that is the fact that as a hunter aims higher and higher up the food chain, the more rare and precious the beasts become.
