''Wild Women: Gentle Beasts'' is a feature documentary by Swiss director
Anka Schmid
Anka Schmid (born March 8, 1961 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a film director, screenwriter and video artist. She is considered a German as well as a Swiss artist.
Life and education
Anka Schmid is the eldest of three daughters of an engineer an ...
, released in 2015. Schmid documents the life and work of female animal tamers from four nations:
Egypt,
France,
Germany and
Russia. The world premiere was at the film festival ''
Visions du Réel
Visions du Réel (Visions of Reality) is an internationally renowned documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current na ...
'' in
Nyon in April 2015. The international premiere was at the ''
Hof International Film Festival'' in October 2015.
Summary
''Wild Women - Gentle Beasts'' documents the life and work of five animal tamers, Namayca Bauer from France, Carmen Zander from Germany, Nadezhda and Aliya Takshantova from Russia as well as Anosa Kouta from Egypt, who, due to the political circumstances at the time of shooting was touring in Qatar. The film shows not only the women on stage performing their breath taking acts but also their life off stage where they fight for their existence in a profession that might soon be banned. All of them work in a circus and tame
tigers (Zander),
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
s (Bauer and Kouta) and
bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
s (Takshantova). Schmid shows the life beyond the flashy stage shows and mainly takes a close look at the harsh reality of everyday life in a circus. The camera follows them around and in a respectful manner gets very close to the animal tamers. They reveal their deep passion and love for their wild animals and their extraordinary job, as well as their desires, aspirations and fears. It shows how the women have to cross their own physical and mental limits on a daily basis and that mortal danger is an integral part of their vocation. In contrasting images of domina vs. lap cat and beauty vs. the beast the film shows how affectionate yet extremely exhausting the relationship between animals and tamers is.
Festivals and screenings
* March 2016:
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
* February 2016:
Cairo International Women's Film Festival
The Cairo International Women's Film Festival ( ar, مهرجان القاهرة الدولي لسينما المرأة) or CIWFF is an independent initiative dedicated to introducing films directed by women from around the world — not necessari ...
* January 2016:
Solothurn Film Festival
* December 2015:
Artdocfest
Artdocfest is an international festival of original documentary films. Artdocfest presents the brightest non-format documentaries of all genres. It was established in 2007 by the Directorate of the Russian national non-fiction films award "Lavrov ...
Moscow
* November 2015:
Dharamshala International Film Festival
* November 2015:
Biberacher Filmfestspiele
* October 2015: Hof International Film Festival
* August 2015:
Festival del Film Locarno
* April 2015: Visions du Réel, Nyon
''Visions du Réel'' program 2015
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References
External links
Official website
*
* ''Wild Women: Gentle Beasts'' o
Swissfilms
* ''Wild Women: Gentle Beasts'' o
Reck Filmproduktion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Women: Gentle Beasts
2015 films
2015 documentary films
Swiss documentary films
2010s German-language films
Documentary films about women
Documentary films about circus performers