WFG RATING: A+
Strike Media and the Media Partnership presents a Definition Films production. Written, directed, and lensed by Rogue Rubin.
Stars Rogue Rubin.
A woman is determined to get an understanding what makes people want to hunt down animals in this very heartbreaking and emotional documentary.
Born in South Africa but based in Australia, Rogue Rubin has always felt close to her birthplace. One thing she has been worried about is the conservation of the lions in Africa. There are those who are in the wild and those who were bred in captivity. Those bred in captivity would be later sold to trophy hunters in canned cages if not relocated to any zoos or animal habitats. To learn more about why hunting is such a big thing, she decides to go undercover.
Returning to Africa, Rogue meets Pieter, the owner of a facility where hunters from all over pay big money to hunt big game, including lions, giraffes, and more. Posing as a photographer, Rogue learns the harsh realities of the hunting industry in Africa and to make matters worse, she has learned that after a 2015 ban on hunted animals being brought back to the U.S., it was overturned with a new administration.
After watching the 2018 film Mia and the White Lion, in which there is a heartbreaking scene in which our lead character witnesses a canned lion hunt, one would never imagine someone actually going undercover in real life to do the same with the intent of letting the world know about the endangerment of wild lions due to the world of hunting. Where Mia does what she can to protect her white lion, Rogue Rubin faced insurmountable odds not to get caught as she had a plan to expose the world of lion and big game hunting.
Rubin has to be one of the bravest souls to accomplish this mission. This sounds like something you would expect in a movie as she pretends to be a big game photographer. Finding herself infiltrating a facility, she learns about how hunting works by meeting with the likes of gun shop owners, newcomer hunters from Singapore, a father-daughter duo from the United States, and a big game hunter from Europe. In addition, she attends hunter conferences in both the U.S. and Africa and is shocked at the numbers and corporations behind the hunting. It depicts a sense of contradiction with those who claim to believe in conservation and are actually supporting the hunting industry.
Lion Spy is a very emotional and sometimes heartbreaking look at the hunting industry and the conservation of wildlife in Africa. Rogue Rubin has done the impossible and risked so much to get her message out there and hopefully, people will see this film and understand.
The film is available on Digital today (May 7)