SIRGA

A wondrous fable about two African children, a lion cub and their quest for freedom from slavery, Sirga takes the old-fashioned animal adventure into the realm of magic realism, moving freely between breathtaking action, dreamlike incident and traditional folklore. With a simplicity and immediacy that will astonish and captivate child and adult alike, this tale of the loyalties that bind in the human world, set against the spiritual promise reflected in nature and the animal kingdom, recounts the odyssey of village children Oulé and Lena. Oulé is born into the mystical guardianship of a lion cub Sirga, and boy and beast grow up together, spending their days talking, hunting and stalking, forging a bond as strong as it is magical. Then one dark day, savage desert horsemen sweep down into the village and carry off all the children, and Oulé and Lena are sold to an imperious Arabian prince. Imprisoned in a magnificent walled palace atop a desert mountain, Oulé calls on his powers of magic in a bid for freedom.

Twenty-five weeks of spectacular wide-screen filming in Nigeria, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Morocco leap from the screen in searing images of African landscapes and wildlife. The magnificent cast of lions, elephants, eagles, serpents and antelope provide the most convincing creature sequences since The Bear, and with its intoxicating blend of traditional songs and chants (mixing a rich, lucid sound design and panoramic vision with the timeless quality of an epic legend), Sirga strikes an enticing balance between the West's pictorial ideal of the 'Darkest Continent' and the genuine folk traditions of Black Africa.