A roaring tale of bravado

26 Jan 2010

White Lion is a remarkable and interesting watch with a third person narrative. The adventure film begins around a campfire where a story-teller reveals the tale of the White Lion legend that marks the Shangaan belief, to a group of school campers.

‘According to the legend of the Shangaan, white lions are the messengers of the gods, but it has been years since one has been seen in their remote African valley'. One day miraculously after many years of its absence, Letsatsi, a white lion is born into the valley and the tale follows his journey of survival. Letsatsi is shunned by his pride because of his colour and he has to fend for himself.

When a young Shangaan, Gisani, sees the white lion cub for the first time he believes he is destined to watch over Letsatsi and protect him from hunters but he is conflicted when he finds himself working with a hunter who would pay the price to have the skin of the white lion.

Gisani must find a way to stop this tragedy from taking place or else the Shangaan will suffer and the white lion will perish.

This is a beautiful and captivating tale for any age. The film relies wholly on the performance of ‘real' lions where, according to director Michael Swan, “What you see is virtually written and in a sense directed by the lions”.

It is visually captivating and real in every sense, some may draw parallels with The Lion King, and it probably does have similarities if you really want it to, it crossed my mind as well, but White Lion has merit to catch the viewers' attention and can't be compared to Disney.