lion kill tourist

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Why don’t lions attack tourists on safari and more questions from our readers.

A Moon-less Earth, yoga history, climate change and human speech

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Why don’t wild lions attack human tourists in open vehicles?

Douglas Hall, Suwanee, Georgia

It’s all about predator-prey dynamics: A lion wouldn’t think twice about going after an individual human, but a motor vehicle is just so much larger than any animal a lion would usually attack as prey (or perceive as a threat it could handle). This dynamic also helps explain why animals do things or have characteristics to make themselves look larger—to avoid being perceived as easy prey.

Craig Saffoe, Curator of great cats, National Zoo

What would happen to the Earth if the Moon were destroyed?

Rose Mary, Bundscho, Houston

There’s a vibrant literature on the subject on the Internet, but the logic chains are rather long and sometimes hard to follow. In reality, any event violent enough to destroy the Moon would likely destroy the Earth, too. Speaking less literally, the Earth without the Moon would be a planet without tides—and with a less compelling night sky. David DeVorkin Curator of astronomy and space sciences, Air and Space Museum

How long ago did humans develop the ability to speak and form words?

Marsha Cox, Kure Beach, North Carolina

We don’t know about spoken words; they don’t turn into fossils that we can discover and date. But written words date back about 8,000 years, and evidence of artistic expression, such as sculptures and paintings, is much more ancient. For instance, humans began using pigments like ocher and manganese to mark objects, and possibly their own skin, between 320,000 and 260,000 years ago.

Briana Pobiner, Paleoanthropologist, Natural History Museum

We often hear that climate change is raising the sea level. Is it rising globally or in specific locations?

Wayne Gilbert, Westminster, Colorado

The sea level is rising worldwide, but not uniformly, due to differences in ocean circulation, winds, the shape of local bodies of water, seafloor characteristics and even the gravitational pull of polar ice sheets. The elevation of land may also change over time in an equally variable fashion. Combined, the two factors create a great deal of local variation in the rise of sea elevation compared with land elevation, which we call relative sea level rise.

Patrick Megonigal, Climate change ecologist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Who invented yoga?

Debbie Peck, Germantown, Wisconsin

No specific individual or spiritual tradition. Yoga emerged in northern India about 2,500 years ago, as men and women of various faiths began to renounce social bonds and turn to meditation as a means of rising above the pain of existence. By the seventh century A.D., the core concepts, practices and vocabulary of almost every yoga system were established, though variations and expansions continue.

Debra Diamond, Curator, “Yoga: The Art of Transformation,” Sackler Gallery

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American Tourist Attacked and Killed by a Lion in South Africa

— -- An American tourist inside a car was killed and a tour operator was injured in an attack by a lion at a park near Johannesburg, South Africa , a spokesman for The Lion Park told ABC News.

Staff members hurried into an enclosure at the park to fight off the lion and called an ambulance after the attack took place around 2:30 p.m. local time, or 8:30 a.m. ET, the spokesman, Scott Simpson told ABC News.

Photographer's Chilling Image of Attacking Lion Will Put Terror in Your Heart

Intern killed by lion at california sanctuary.

The woman, who was in the passenger seat of a car and has not been identified, died while emergency services were treating her, Simpson said, adding that the driver of the car, a tour operator, sustained injuries on his arm from fighting off the lion.

Witnesses quoted in South African media said they saw two people traveling in a car with their windows open. The lion is reported to have jumped at the woman through the open window and killed her.

A State Department official confirmed an American was killed at the park but declined further comment.

The lion responsible for the attack will not be euthanized, but could be moved to a private location, Simpson told ABC News.

Earlier this year, a lion attacked an Australian tourist in his car, though that tourist did not die from his injuries, Simpson added. He said the park has not had a fatal attack since the current management took over in 1999.

ABC News' Sifiso Khanyile in South Africa contributed to this report.

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Lion Kills American Tourist Driving in South African Park

A lion and a lioness rest at Lion Park, near Pretoria, on June 29, 2010 (AFP Photo/Daniel Garcia)

A lion leapt through a open car window and mauled to death an American tourist at a privately-run game park just outside Johannesburg on Monday, a park official said.

“There was a car driving to the lion camp and the lion did come through the window and bite the lady,” Scott Simpson, operations manager of The Lion Park venue told Talk Radio 702.

“The ambulance arrived quite soon, but the lady had passed away.”

The 22-year-old woman and another American tourist were travelling through the park, northwest of South Africa’s biggest city, with their car windows open.

The second tourist, a man, suffered serious injuries while trying to save the victim who was sitting in the car passenger seat.

The incident is the latest in attacks at the park, which is popular with both locals and foreigners.

Related: Lion Jumps in Car and Mauls Tourist on Safari

In March, an Australian tourist was injured by a lioness after driving through the park with his car windows open.

Two days later, a 13-year-old from a nearby slum was attacked by a cheetah while riding a bicycle through the grounds.

In December 2013, a former South African franchise rugby player Brett Tucker and his family were attacked by a lion at the same park and his father reportedly suffered minor injuries.

The park has more than 85 lions, including rare white lions, and a variety of other animals, including giraffes and ostriches.

According to its website, Lion Park guarantees “super close-up animal views” but it does order visitors to keep their car windows shut

The park has previously come under fire for allowing visitors to pet lion cubs.

It was also recently accused of breeding lions for “canned hunting”, a charge it refutes.

The park offers tented accommodation and also hosts children’s birthday parties.

Related: You Have to See It To Believe It — Lion Shocks Tourists By Opening Car Door on Safari

WATCH: Meet the Men Fighting to Save South Africa’s Rhinos From Poaching

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Gta gas prices to jump 14 cents a litre, lion kills tourist, 22, in south africa game park.

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A tourist was mauled and killed by a lioness at a private game lodge in South Africa on Tuesday morning.

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According to news organization Rekord North , the 22-year-old woman died at the scene.

Lion kills tourist, 22, in South Africa game park Back to video

The tragedy occurred at an unnamed lodge in Hammanskraal, which reportedly lies just outside the Dinokeng Nature Reserve near Pretoria.

“When Netcare 911 paramedics arrived at the scene, bystanders had initiated CPR,” spokesman Nick Dollman said. “Tragically, the victim had sustained severe injuries and she died at the scene.”

He said police were investigating the circumstances leading to the fatal mauling.

The incident is the country’s second in the past month involving lions.

On Feb. 12, police reported that a poacher was killed and eaten by a pride of lions he had been hunting at Ingwelala Private Nature Reserve.

The man was heard screaming as he was being attacked. The lions devoured his body — but his head was untouched.

In 2015, an American tourist was mauled to death after she ignored warnings to keep her window closed and kept on taking pictures of a lion — right up to the second it killed her, the Daily Mail reported.

South African officials say lion attacks are extremely rare but noted they do occasionally happen.

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Graphic video as Brit survives lion attack

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Lions kill tourist as he showers in Zimbabwe

Lions attacked and killed a tourist while he was showering at an unfenced campsite in Zimbabwe , a conservationist said today.

Peter Evershed, a 59-year-old businessman, was mauled by five lions while showering under a tree at the Chitake Springs bush camp in the Mana Pools nature reserve, said Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.

Evershed was the last of his family and friends to take a shower as darkness fell on Saturday. They heard him scream and ran to the showers but he was already dead from a gash to the throat, Rodrigues said.

The lions retreated only after a safari operator pulled up in a vehicle with its headlights on and fired shots into the air, Rodrigues told the Zimbabwe Herald Online.

"We appeal to everyone to exercise extreme caution. Animals have become extremely unpredictable," Rodrigues said. "Due to the poaching and number of elephants being shot, they have become even more dangerous."

Last month, the South African business executive Don Hornsby was killed by an elephant in the nearby Matusadona reserve. Hornsby had helped fund feeding programmes for orphaned animals.

Soon afterwards, the veteran conservationist Steve Kok died when a wounded buffalo charged at him as he was destroying traps and wire snares laid by poachers.

In September, businessman Geoff Blythe barely survived an attack by a female elephant as he cycled near his home in the lakeside town of Kariba, 230 miles (370km) north-west of Harare.

Blythe told family and friends that he tried to pedal as fast as he could from the elephant and her calf but the bike chain dislodged. He dumped the bike and ran but there were no trees or powerline towers near enough to climb. He threw himself into a gully of soft sand as the elephant overtook him. The elephant gored him in the back and thigh and kicked him into thorny bushes before backing away. Blythe suffered cuts and fractured ribs.

"He was lucky to escape with his life," Rodrigues said.

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WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO: 9 lionesses attack lion in front of horrified visitors at West Midlands Safari Park

Nine lionesses attack lion as horrified visitors look on

A group of lionesses attacked a lion at West Midlands Safari Park over food, as a group of visitors caught the disturbing footage on film.

This is the moment nine lionesses brutally attacked a lion in front of horrified visitors in Worcestershire, England.

Shocking footage shows the pack of females tearing their teeth into the leader of the pride's flesh at West Midlands Safari Park.

The lionesses then drag him from the rocks into the water where he is seen helplessly roaring in pain.

Safari workers at the enclosure in Bewdley, Worcs., had to step in and spray fire extinguishers at the beasts to break up the ferocious attack after the male was left covered in blood.

It is conceivable the lionesses were trying to kill their leader because he was too old to run the pride.

However, Mya Beverstock, who caught the attack on film, said the females may have pounced on him after a dispute over food.

She said: "It pretty much happened out of the blue. It was feeding time and then suddenly we heard growling and roaring.

"Two other males stepped back and didn't get involved while the females attacked the leader. He may have ate before his turn."

She added: "Safari workers dealt with it very quickly. Three jeeps ended up in the enclosure honking their horns and driving towards the lions to break them up.

"One of the jeeps sprayed them with a fire extinguisher which ended up mostly breaking up the fight.

"We did go around the park again afterwards and all the female lions had been removed from the enclosure and it was only the three males in there."

Luckily, the lion who was pounced on survived the brutal attack.

In February of this year  a pride of lions pounced at a car  at the same safari park.

No one was injured in the attack but the roof was left dented and scratched.

This story originally appeared in The Sun .

Editor's note: West Midlands Park issued an update on the attack, saying the male lion, Jilani, did not experience any serious injuries and only suffered some stiffness and soreness.

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Zimbabwe lion kills tourist guide in Cecil’s park

• By Thomson Reuters

Cecil the lion in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, in 2010.

HARARE (Reuters) – A Zimbabwean tourist guide was killed on Tuesday by a lion in a pride he was tracking with tourists in Hwange National Park, the home of the country's most prized lion Cecil, who was killed last month, the park said.

Last month's killing of Cecil, a 13-year-old, rare black-maned lion by American hunter Walter Palmer, was met with global outrage and triggered a backlash against Africa's lucrative hunting industry.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA) said that professional guide Quinn Swales was on a walking safari with six foreign tourists in Hwange park on Tuesday when he was attacked by a male lion wearing a GPS collar.

"He spotted fresh lion spoor and decided to track a pride of lions consisting two females, two curbs and two makes. One of the lions known as Nxaha was collared," the parks agency said in a statement.

"It is further revealed that Nxaha jumped out at Quinn. All efforts to save Quinn were in vain," the statement said.

Police are investigating the case but it was not immediately clear whether Swales was armed. None of the tourists were injured.

Cases of people killed by wild animals in and around Zimbabwe's national parks often go unreported, and in the past, some lions that have killed humans have been shot.

ZPWMA spokeswoman Caroline Washaya-Moyo said no decision had been made on whether Nxaha should be shot or not.

Zimbabwe has charged two men in connection with the killing of Cecil, who was fitted with a GPS collar as part of an Oxford University study, and was lured from Hwange and shot by Palmer.

Zimbabwe wants Palmer, 55, extradited from the United States to face trial.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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• WILDLIFE WATCH

Cecil the Lion Died Amid Controversy—Here's What's Happened Since

Cecil’s killing sparked what’s been called the biggest global response to a wildlife story ever.

Several years ago Cecil the lion was killed by Walter Palmer, sparking an international outcry and greater scrutiny of trophy hunting for the heads, skins, or other body parts of wild animals. Eight African countries allow the consistent export of lion parts, including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Tanzania, which holds nearly half the continent’s wild lions.

Lions have declined precipitously in the wild, down from an estimated 200,000 continent-wide a century ago to about 20,000 today. Trophy hunting advocates and some conservationists argue that fees from hunts support conservation efforts for the big cats, whose main threats are habitat loss, prey depletion, and greater conflict with humans.

Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, is said to have paid $54,000 to bow-hunt Cecil, a magnificent, black-maned, 13-year-old lion who lived in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park and was well known to visitors. On July 1, 2015 he hit Cecil with an arrow on a farm outside the park, a place where the lion usually went to explore. The team tracked the famed cat and shot him again 11 hours later.

News of Cecil’s death spread instantly. Palmer became an international target of contempt, and thousands took to social media to protest Cecil’s death and trophy hunting in general. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel even cried. He put out a plea to viewers to donate to Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (Wildcru), the research group that had installed a radio collar on Cecil and was observing him. Donations poured in .

“I think it’s arguable that this is the biggest global response to a wildlife story there’s ever been,” says Wildcru director David Macdonald, who analyzed the media coverage . “I think all those people were exhibiting an interest not just in lions but in conservation more widely.”

Here’s what else happened since Cecil's killing.

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Nations modified their trophy-hunting laws..

Some countries decided to stop letting hunters take lion trophies across their borders. Australia flat out banned them. So did France . The United States, the biggest importer of lion trophies, added new protections for lions under the Endangered Species Act. Hunters now can’t bring back their trophies unless the animal came from a country that uses hunt fees to bolster lion conservation.

A coalition of 10 countries led by Niger also proposed stronger international protections that would ban the commercial trade in African lions and their parts. The 182 member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates the global wildlife trade, will vote on the proposal this fall.

As for hunting restrictions in Africa, Kenya, Botswana, and Zambia already had trophy-hunting bans in place before Cecil died. (Zambia decided to lift its ban in 2015.) But Cecil’s home country of Zimbabwe? In August 2015 it suspended big game hunting… for 10 days .

Airlines banned trophies.

Even if a country permits imports of lion trophies, bringing them home isn’t as easy now. More than 40 airlines —including American Airlines, British Airways, JetBlue, Delta, and Air Canada—have announced or reaffirmed bans on transporting trophies from the big five species: lions, rhinos, elephants, leopards, and Cape buffalo.

One airline went in the other direction: South African Airways had instituted a ban in April 2015, but just three weeks after Cecil’s death the company lifted its ban .

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We learned more about trophy hunting and its impact..

A report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare broke down some of the statistics: People will pay from $24,000 to $71,000 to hunt lions in Africa (more than any other trophy species); about 8,200 African lion trophies were imported between 2004 and 2014, the sixth highest of any internationally protected species (the American black bear is number one); and trade rates for lion parts have risen faster than those for any other of these protected species.

So what impact has trophy hunting had? It depends on where the lions live and how the hunting is managed—scientists recommend strict enforcement of low quotas and only allowing hunts of older lions.

Some studies have shown that trophy hunting has taken a toll on lion populations in parts of Zimbabwe and Tanzania (though they’ve since enacted reforms), while scientists consider Namibia a success story. “The thing about sport hunting is it’s not all good, it’s not all bad,” says Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota. “If you’re to take an average across the continent, though, the bad outweighs the good.”

One report by the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources found that there’s little evidence to show that trophy-hunting fees help conservation, particularly in nations known for corruption.

And about trophy hunting of captive lions...

In the summer of 2015 there was the release of Blood Lions , a documentary about canned hunting in South Africa, where a hunter pays up to $50,000 to pursue and kill a lion that had been hand-reared and is kept in a confined space, making it an easy target. There are up to 7,000 of these “ranch lions.”

Since the film aired, South Africa’s hunting association voted to distance itself from the captive-bred lion hunting industry. The world’s leading group of African lion researchers and conservationists also advised that any assessment of the country’s wild lions shouldn’t include these ranch lions.

"It’s important to stress that South Africa's ranch lions are a horror that has nothing to do with lion conservation,” Hans Bauer, a lion researcher and lead author of a 2015 assessment of lions’ conservation status, previously told National Geographic.

Walter Palmer went back to his dental practice.

After a weeks-long hiatus, Palmer went back to his dental practice September 2015. Zimbabwean authorities said that he had shown the proper documentation to hunt Cecil, so he was never charged with a crime. Once news of the lion’s death broke, Palmer said he didn’t know that the animal he’d shot was the beloved Cecil.

Cecil’s cubs are doing just fine.

There’s one bright spot in the Cecil saga. Cecil and another male, Jericho, had led a pride with 14 offspring, including eight young cubs. All but one are now alive and well under Jericho’s protection, according to Wildcru’s Macdonald. Scientists had worried that another male would overthrow Jericho and kill those cubs, as incoming males often do so that the females will quickly become fertile again. But that hasn’t happened as of June 30, 2016. “Jericho has managed to hold the fort,” Macdonald says.

This story was produced by National Geographic’s Special Investigations Unit, which focuses on wildlife crime and is made possible by grants from the BAND Foundation and the Woodtiger Fund. Read more stories from the SIU on Wildlife Watch . Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to [email protected] .

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Tourist Killed by Lions - WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

• Thread starter AfricaHunting.com
• Start date Jul 21, 2009

AfricaHunting.com

• Jul 21, 2009

Wow. That's about all i have to say. That guy made a mistake...big time.  

Well lions have to eat too! OK.....I am sure that will get some flack so let me try and soften my tactless response. Of course I feel sorry for the guy getting shredded and his poor family having to watch it. But really.........this was a bad case of 'dumb and dumber'. Not sure what happened with this in the end, but probably the lions got euthanized for some urban tourist doing something really stupid. They do it every year all over the world. Walking up to big game with camera in hand.....bears, bison bulls, cow elk with calves, moose and elk bulls during the rut.....and lions. Call me an insensitive lout, but I have a hard time drumming up a lot of honest to goodness sympathy for people that do really stupid things.  

Like Skyline the only ones I have any real sympathy for are his wife and kids as they were involuntarily placed in the position to watch a fool's final act. Yeah, okay, we've all done foolish things, but there really are some limits. Even for foolishness. "Here kitty, kitty, pose for the camera."  

Hard to feel bad for this jackass. :samurai:  

Indy Hunter

• Jul 24, 2009

How close does one really need to be to get good pictures or footage?  

browningbbr

I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I feel sorry for the guy. On the other hand, the gene pool got cleaned up a bit.  

We are responsible for every decision we make, no matter how good or bad. However, I would not wish that on anyone, no matter how stupid.  

BangFlop said: We are responsible for every decision we make, no matter how good or bad. However, I would not wish that on anyone, no matter how stupid. Click to expand...

DUGABOY. . . my sentiments exactly!  

Valid points ....  

• Jul 28, 2009

What Can i say they probably shot the lions for this person's stupid mistake. Most people dont know this but we have tested this when a female lioness sees you and stands up from that point it will take her 2.5 seconds to reach 60km/h.  

• Aug 13, 2010

The stupid guy probably died, his family is in shock and the lion (who already had a shitty life in that cage) was sort of shot by a 9mm handgun and died slowly and in a lot of pain ... nice going of this guy ...  

Ya just can"t fix stupid  

• Aug 14, 2010

Well it’s not pretty and not the lion king either but I am sure the greenies will be able to say that wild animals and humans should go hand in hand I mean what have we got to fear from them anyway LOL! Just my 2 cents. Best Regards Louis van Bergen  

• Aug 16, 2010

AfricaHunting.com said: "Man Eaters Of Tsavo" by famous Wildlife Artisit John Banovich. Check out his amazing work on his website at www.johnbanovich.com . Man Eaters Of Tsavo by John Banovich, 50" X 77" Oil On Linen, Private Collection. Click to expand...

• Aug 17, 2010

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Mountain lion kills man in Northern California in state's first fatal attack in 20 years

A mountain lion attack in a remote Northern California region west of Lake Tahoe left one man dead and another injured, officials said, in the first such fatal attack in the state in 20 years.

An 18-year-old man called 911 on Saturday after 1 p.m. to report that he and his brother had been attacked in Georgetown, a small town north of Placerville, California, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.

The man who alerted authorities sustained "traumatic injuries to his face" and was separated from his brother during the attack, officials said. He was taken to a nearby hospital.

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Sheriff's deputies and paramedics searched for the brother and found a crouched mountain lion next to a man on the ground, authorities said. Deputies fired shots "scaring the mountain lion off so they could render aid" to the man. But the unidentified 21-year-old man had died.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the El Dorado County Trapper were sent to the region. They found the mountain lion "and dispatched it," according to a news release.

How many fatal mountain lion attacks have there been in recent years?

Before Saturday's attack, there had been only three fatal mountain lion attacks on humans in California since 1994, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Of those three attacks, the most recent involved a 35-year-old male who was fatally mauled in 2004 at Whiting Ranch Regional Park in Orange County.

The last fatal mountain lion attack in El Dorado County was in 1994, when a 40-year-old woman was killed at Auburn state recreation area.

Authorities said mountain lion attacks are rare, and most verified encounters between the big cats and humans are not fatal.

Boy, 5, attacked while out for a walk

Last year, a mountain lion attacked a 5-year-old boy who was out on a walk with his mother and grandparents near Half Moon Bay, California, a beach community south of San Francisco.

In that incident, the mountain lion pounced on Jack Trexler, pinning him to the ground. The boy's mother charged at the animal, which let go of her son and ran away, according to the boy's father. The attack occurred near a farm where the family lives in  Half Moon Bay .

The boy was treated for cuts and scratches on his face and all over his body and for a fracture near his eye.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mountain lion kills man in Northern California in state's first fatal attack in 20 years

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Elephant attack leaves American woman dead in Zambia's Kafue National Park

By Sarah Carter , Adam Duxter

Updated on: April 4, 2024 / 6:13 PM EDT / CBS News

Johannesburg — An elephant attack that left an American woman dead in Zambia was captured in harrowing cellphone video over the weekend. The clip, shot by tourists in Zambia's Kafue National Park, begins inside an open safari vehicle during a game drive.

In the distance, a large bull elephant can be seen coming toward the vehicle. The occupants of the vehicle cannot be seen in the video clip, but someone is heard, saying: "Oh my goodness," before a man says, "it's coming fast."

The vehicle stops and then another voice, presumably the game ranger, tries to ward off the elephant verbally as the large pachyderm hooks its tusks onto the vehicle and rolls it several times.

Family members  confirmed that Gail Mattson, a 79-year-old Minnesotan, was killed in the attack. In the post on Facebook, Rona Wells said her mother had died in "a tragic accident while on her dream adventure."

Mattson, a retired loan officer, was 11 days into a month-long vacation overseas, her family told WCCO, describing her as "adventurous" and "loved by everybody."

Wilderness Safaris, which operates the tour in the Zambian park, said in a statement that it was cooperating with national authorities to investigate the incident and it offered condolences to Mattson's family.

Wilderness said the other tourists traveling with Mattson were also Americans, four of whom sustained minor injuries in the attack.

"Our guides are extremely well trained, but sadly the terrain and vegetation was such that the route became blocked," the company said, explaining that the ranger "could not move the vehicle out of harm's way quickly enough."

Mattson was evacuated to a hospital in South Africa after the incident but succumbed to her injuries.

Kafue National Park is Zambia's largest national park at 8,650 square miles. It's a popular tourist destination as it's home to five of sub-Saharan Africa's iconic big animal species, lions, elephants, leopards, rhinoceros and buffalo.

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Modern Heroes Tread the World Stage From Srebrenica to Tbilisi, India, Palermo and a Wondrous Greenland Ice Sheet in Latest Swiss Docs  

“Dom (Home in Russian),” “Quir” and “Iceman” look like potential standouts at Swiss Films Previews, the only spread of national movies at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel , the country’s leading doc festival. 

Popular on Variety

That resilience can even take on a Quixotic edge. In “The Boy from the River Drina,” for example, Irvin returns to the woods around Srebrenica, where much of his family were slaughtered, intent on building a village of simple cabins for survivors to return to their homeland. 

“Irvin somehow shows us the power of utopia: What sense does it make to build a tourist village with one’s own hands in the place where a genocide took place thirty years earlier?” asks director Zijad Ibrahimovic.  

“I find it fascinating that a young man, while still searching for the remains of his father, would allow himself the luxury of escaping suffering and proposing life,” he adds.

That combination – the personal, the universal – runs through many tiles. They treat big issues. They are often not even set in Switzerland, but rather Sicily, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia’s Tbilisi or Greenland’s Ice Sheet. 

Larger than life, these figures are iconic heroes, and sometimes look the part. When Konrad Steffen greets a helicopter outside his camp, he stands astride the snow, a towering figure in obsession of himself and his landscape.

Films are shot with a cinematographic style: “Quir’s” pop out vibrantly coloured credits look like an early Almodóvar film. 

Three titles are also second features, which is a good sign, suggesting the success of the makers’ debut, observes Charlotte Ducos, Swiss Films consultant, documentary film & marketing strategies.

Switzerland has seen an influx of immigration. Backed by public broadcasters, documentary production has solid financial backing. Although produced by Swiss companies, the Previews documentaries touch on topics that are universal, though anchored in individual human stories, she adds. 

Now in its seventh edition and a fixture on the festival calendar, the Swiss Films Previews are in themselves a sign of a stable but burgeoning industry, she argues.

Four more Swiss docs will be presented at Cannes Docs in May. 

A brief drill down on this year’s six Previews titles:

“The Boy From the River Drina,”  (Zijad Ibrahimovic, Rough Cat, Lugano)

In Spring 1992, war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Drina Valley was the scene of its worst atrocities, culminating in the Srebrenica massacre, an opening credit explains in the extract seen at Visions du Réel. Irvin Mujcic, then 5, escaped with his mother. His father and over 20 family members were killed. In the film, in 2014, he returned to build a small village in the same woods where Bosniaks had taken refuge. “Little is said about the return to Srebrenica. By returning, we give new life to people who are no longer there,” Mujcic says in the film.    

“Dom (Home in Russian),”  (Svetlana Rodina, Laurent Stoop, DokLab, Bern)

“Iceman,”  (Corina Gamma, Tellfilm, Zurich)

Graced by wondrous shots of the ever-shifting Greenland Ice Sheet, a personal portrait of Konrad Steffen, a renowned Swiss authority on climate change, who disappeared without trace in August 2020, presumably falling into a crevasse covered by fresh snow near a camp. “The film traces the exceptional life of Swiss Polar researcher Konrad Steffen, whose passion for the surreal and uninhabitable Greenland Ice Sheet went beyond his science,” says Gamma. “Unlike any biographical documentaries, the personal approach of this film conveys the friendship between the filmmaker and the researcher and their shared fascination for the ice.”

“Kalari, The Martial Art of Female Power, ” (Maria Kaur Bedi, Salinder Singh Bedi, First Hand Films, Zurich; Spirited Heroine Productions, Bern)  

Co-directed by Bedi Duo – the on-the-rise Maria Kaur Bedi and multiple prized Indian director Satindar Singh Bedi (“The Curse”), “Kalari” takes the pulse of a martial art which is sweeping India, particularly its women, in a country where gender violence is common. The film follows four young Indian women “on their journey towards self empowerment,” the description runs.  

“Kalari” was described by director Singh Bedi at the Previews as the “first feature film about the oldest martial art in the world.” “Our film shows women as warriors not as victims through an anthology of female protagonists which covers different aspects of hope, self-conviction and courage,” he added.   

“Quir,”  (Nicola Bellucci, Soap Factory)

A portrait of Massimo Milani and Gino Campanella, an iconic gay couple together for 42 years, who own Quir, a leather goods boutique with an Almodóvar-esque aesthetic sells bags in pop-out colors, a LGBTQ sanctuary in the patriarchal stronghold of Palermo, Sicily. Mixing the intimate and political, as in his doc-feature “Grozny Blues,” nominated for a 2016 Swiss Film Award, Bellucci builds a portrait of Palermo’s LGBTQ community, its gains, ongoing political struggles and resilience. Frank Matter produces for Basel-based Soap Factory. “‘Either you are happy or you are complicit. ’Quir’ is a free and liberating doc-comedy that, through the lived lives of four generations of activists, recounts 40 years of LGBT struggles in Italy,” Bellucci tells Variety . “Starting from a peripheral perspective, that of post-patriarchal Sicily, the film questions and interrogates us about what the struggle for identity means today in the Italy of Neo-Fascist regurgitations.”  

Added producer Frank Matter: “It’s a film about discrimination, but also about love, about taking care of each other: it’s a very universal film.”  

“Spheres,”  (Daniel Zimmermann, Beauvoir Films, Geneva; Mischief Films, Vienna)

Made up of a series of circular pans as the camera rotates slowly on its axis in different settings – the countryside, a restaurant, the terrace of an inner city high-rise flat, a barren mountain, a hidden chamber.  “Spheres” reveals the extraordinary in the apparently ordinary: a wooden slat thrown in one direction which circles the earth, striking the thrower in the back of the head; a restaurant diner crouched on the floor, eating like a dog from a bowl; in the chamber, two young women with sequinned faces looking deeply into each other’s eyes. “I want to go beneath the surface, beyond the appearance of everyday life, to immerse the audience into an uncommon experience,” Zimmermann tells  Variety .  “I’m using an altered narrative method by incorporating the work of artists and performers resulting in 10 tableaux as a series of mind-expanding practices for the big screen.”

At the Previews pitch, Zimmermann likened “Spheres” to Abbas Kiarostami’s “24 Frames.” Each tableaux, is the result of a collaboration with an artist. “Each is specialised in a field of spirituality, and in some cases with shamanistic techniques,” he added.

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