It’s worth more than cocaine, gold and even diamonds
… which is why the rhino has been poached to the brink of extinction for its horn. Filmmakers Susan Scott and Bonné de Bod could no longer stand by. Their award-winning film, STROOP: Journey into the Rhino Horn War, is their call to action – and it’s been praised as a real game changer.
It’s been called a crisis, a war, a campaign, but the word that most accurately describes the mass slaughter of rhinos is ‘genocide’. Just a century ago more than half a million of these animals roamed the earth. Today, only 3 percent of that figure remains – which is why Susan Scott and Bonné de Bod gave up everything they owned to make STROOP, a film that has been described as the most important documentary on rhino poaching yet.
Susan trained as a cinematographer in the United States, but because there were limited opportunities for women in the ’90s, she returned to South Africa, where she edited footage for some of the world’s best wildlife filmmakers. Presenter and producer Bonné’s career started somewhat differently. She became a model after graduating from college, but her passion for wildlife eventually helped her land a fieldreporting position with the SABC. And it was on SABC2’s environmental programme 50/50 that the two women met and the idea for STROOP was born.
‘I’d been working as a film editor on National Geographic programmes, but I really wanted to get back into filmmaking,’ says Susan. ‘I’d just started at 50/50 when I was asked to produce a story on the rhino poaching crisis.’ That was when she met Bonné, who had been working as a presenter and producer for the show for almost a decade.
‘We filmed in the Kruger National Park and the rangers took us out to see two carcasses.’ The footage of Bonné kneeling between the dead rhinos is shown at the start of STROOP – in the shot you can see clearly how overwhelmed she is at the sight. ‘I was filled with sadness and anger; all I could think was: “How can we as South Africans allow this to happen?”’ The pair realised there was no way they could explain the complexity of the crisis in a mere 12-minute segment.
That was in 2013. In August 2014, having sold their homes, cashed in their investments and quit their jobs, Susan and Bonné both moved in with their moms. The documentary had to be
At times, STROOP feels more like a thriller than a wildlife documentary.
independent, which meant they would have to finance it themselves. So they started a crowdfunding campaign. ‘We both knew from our experiences with National Geographic and the SABC that if we touched on something that was too political or sensitive, [the channel] would decide what the audience should or shouldn’t see,’ explains Susan.
What started out as a six-month project turned into four gruelling years of work, with Susan behind the camera and Bonné producing and presenting. STROOP finally premiered at the San Francisco Green Film Festival in September last year, bagging 17 awards as well as official airtime at 26 other international film festivals. It is also garnering massive critical acclaim: it’s been called ‘the breakout documentary of the year’ and ‘a game changer in rhino conservation’. ‘The rhino story is such a powerful, moving one that anyone, anywhere in the world will relate to it,’ says Bonné. ‘You don’t have to have seen a rhino in the wild or grown up in SA to feel for what they’re going through.’
What sets STROOP apart from other rhino documentaries is its unique approach to tracking the crisis. For the filmmakers, it was important to show the entire journey: from seeing rhinos in the wild to encountering the poachers (some of whom end up in court) and the consumers of rhino horn. ‘We wanted to show everything, so that after two hours and 14 minutes, people can’t say they didn’t know,’ explains Bonné. ‘We wanted the audience to walk away with some takeaway, whether it was: “I had no idea about the demand for rhino horn”, “I had no idea how flawed our judicial system is” or “I had no idea about the cruelty”,’ adds Susan.
At times, STROOP feels more like a thriller than a documentary. If it isn’t the constant danger at the parks (from poachers who often shoot first and ask questions later), then it’s the fear of being caught at airports in South East Asia for filming without a journalist visa. ‘When we were flying out of Hanoi I had all the footage with me on a drive and I was really paranoid about having all this “evidence” on me, because essentially what we were doing was illegal,’ recalls Susan. ‘They stopped Bonné, and I thought: “That’s it. They’ve got us.”’
Some of the behind-the-scenes stories are straight out of a spy film: Susan even picked out a backpacker who she could slip the drive to, along with a message, if it looked like she might be caught. (Ironically, they were surrounded by people openly wearing rhino horn jewellery, despite the fact that horn trade is illegal.)
At one point Susan, Bonné and their translator get into a car with smugglers to go to a rhino horn factory in Vietnam. ‘I don’t think we thought about it, really,’ says Bonné. ‘But once we were home it hit us – if they had searched us and found the cameras, they could have chopped us up and thrown our body parts into the Mekong River.’
For Bonné, facing danger wasn’t the biggest obstacle; she found it difficult to stay objective when faced with someone who was using rhino horn. In Vietnam they interviewed a woman who had been given it by a friend to treat her cancer. ‘To hear and see the disconnect between her and the animal was shocking and hard to take in,’ says Susan.
Rhino horn has been used for centuries in South East Asia for its supposed medicinal properties, treating everything from a fever to cancer. The surge in demand is linked to the rise in popularity of traditional Chinese medicine. Many who use rhino horn consider it to be ‘natural’ as opposed to Western medicine, which has side effects; this is a difficult mindset to change. The problem is, this change won’t happen overnight – and the rhino just doesn’t have that much time.
‘When we came back to SA we showed the footage to people working in the parks, the police and the NPA,’ says Susan. ‘They had no idea about the demand for rhino horns in South East Asia. We have to think short-term, and that is protecting our wild rhinos in South Africa as best as we can.
‘Bonné gets so cross when people tell us South Africa has rhino fatigue,’ Susan says with a laugh. ‘When the alarm goes off in the morning, the rangers, vets, state prosecutors and rhino orphan rehabbers don’t think to themselves: “Oh, I’m a bit tired of this rhino poaching thing”,’ Bonné says. ‘They’re not going to give up, so neither can we.’
After the incredible success of the documentary both internationally and locally (98 percent of screenings in SA were sold out, though Susan and Bonné had to self-finance these as no local cinema distributor was interested), it’s safe to say that we do not have rhino poaching fatigue. ‘It gives me such hope, because it shows that South Africans do care – that rhinos are a part of our heritage and that we want to fight for them.’
Making STROOP has changed Susan and Bonné. ‘If the person I was before this film knew what we’d be putting ourselves through, she’d never have come,’ says Susan. ‘But I would do it all again in a heartbeat.’
While Susan found courage, Bonné lost some of her trust. ‘I’ve become more distrustful. Once you’ve been to dozens of crime scenes and witnessed pure evil and the greed that’s driving humanity, you realise that there isn’t just good in the world,’ says Bonné.
‘It definitely woke me up to the fact that there is a crisis on our planet,’ Susan adds. ‘We’re already thinking about our next project.’
STROOP is not easy to watch – at times, it’s gut-wrenching. But there’s no time to sugarcoat this crisis. ‘You can look away if you want to, but people won’t understand the seriousness of these crimes if we don’t show them the truth,’ says Bonné. Having said that, it will also make you want to take action. ‘It can be depressing, but to see the people on the ground and the difference they are making shows that we’re capable of making change,’ says Susan.
So how much time do we have left? For many, the answer is ‘not enough’. ‘Ten years ago you would have seen so many rhinos around Kruger, but that’s not the case any longer,’ says Susan. Between 2011 and 2018, over 7000 rhinos were lost to poaching in South Africa. In Asia, the greater one-horned rhino has been brought back from the brink of extinction, with more than 3000 now roaming, but there are only 63 Javan and fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos left.
‘We need to put more pressure on governments around the world and on politicians,’ says Bonné. ‘We recently had elections – how many politicians spoke about rhino poaching and wildlife crime in general? That has to change.’ Susan agrees: ‘The only way we can do that is if we as citizens drive it, and put pressure on politicians.’