Rhino documentary reaps awards

THE award-winning South African documentary film STROOP – Journey into the Rhino Horn War rounded off its international premiere run with more accolades in Europe at the weekend.

The film started its European premiere with a bang at the Wildlife Film Festival, Rotterdam, after leaving the US with a final win in Boston at the Mystic Film Festival for “Best International Documentary”.

Selected to open the festival, the film secured another first by selling out the opening night.

The choice of the South African film to open Europe’s prestigious wildlife film festival was a risky one, as the honour is usually given to a European film or an Oscar nominee, but “the buzz around the rhino documentary made it a natural choice”, said festival director Raymond Laagerwald.

“We have followed the film’s progress through the years of filming, and then seeing the final product, we picked it to open even before the Americans gave it so many awards, and that just confirmed what we already knew… that the film would do well here.”

The Dutch national broadcaster’s prime time news programme, Een Vandaag, ran a feature about the film coming to the Netherlands, which ensured a second sold-out screening.

The film won the coveted Flamingo Award, with the jury stating at the prize-giving ceremony: “This is an impressive and shocking film. The jury believes the filmmakers, guided by the great main character Bonné de Bod, have managed to show us the immense complexity of the problem of rhino poaching. This body of work is a very powerful and emotional call to action.”

In her acceptance speech, STROOP producer, presenter and protagonist De Bod said: “All the awards are really overwhelming, in a wonderful positive way, and seeing packed movie theatres filled with the citizens of Rotterdam who engage powerfully with STROOP is affirmation once again that our rhinos do matter to the world.”

The film is expected to have its South African premiere at the end of the month.