Brothers in Blood: The Lions of Sabi Sand

One of the most fascinating powerful documentaries to date. This gives one the other side of the coin, how ferocious lions really are. It keeps one on the edge of the chair from beginning to end. The footage and interviews are perfectly put together and even some of the clips I recall over the years from You Tube. As a South African I had the opportunity to visit the reserve next to the Sabi Sands, the Manyeleti Game Reserve, where the pack of Selati lions are roaming, so the saga continues. See link to the blog of Tintswalo Safari Lodge of the Selati males and for the first time they have cubs now, blog dated 15-16 October.

Shocking, fascinating, unpleasant, sickening, and then loving, amazing and fantastic how one's emotions took a roller coaster just watching this amazing footage taken over 16 years making this documentary. The guides and people being interviewed was done so superbly and to see how many emotions were involved in the making of this documentary absolutely gave this a top score.

Not recommended for younger viewers for the footage is very shocking at times. I hope that this documentary to be entered at Cannes and if this does not walk away with a win it should get many awards anywhere else.

If you are a wildlife lover and enjoy the African wildlife type documentaries, from Sir David Attenborough's "Africa", Animal Planet or NatGEO, this should be added to the collection of top best Wild Life documentaries of most recent years ever filmed.

Please let me know where this can be ordered from and will it be available on Amazon?

I've watched many wildlife documentaries over the years, and this one really stands out. The film does a great job of capturing the brutality and savagery that wild lions must contend with in their struggle to survive. The video presentation is very good, with most scenes in high resolution, along with a few scenes from lower resolution sources. The audio is good - the only issue I noted was difficulty understanding dialogue spoken by some of the cast members who had heavy South African accents. Subtitles would have helped with that issue. All in all, I would highly recommend this film to those who enjoy a good nature documentary, but be warned - there are very graphic scenes of violent predatory behavior that can be difficult to watch for the faint of heart.

This was shot over the period of 16 years, following the Mapogo lions and is interesting as a concept. It is interesting to follow the story of the lions at some pivotal points, but I feel as though it was a documentary that was pieced together by many different people and sources, therefore it lacked the cohesion of a well-produced documentary.

This is the real deal... Graphic and unabated. You see the beauty, travesty, injustice and cycle of life as seen through this brotherhood of Lions over almost 20 years. Have the tissues nearby as some scenes will move you as did me. Am still affected by what I had seen. Yet this is what really happens our there - not through rose tinted specs It's amazing how these beasts can be so firm and gentle at the same time. Without words, they let their opinion be known, and surprisingly, democracy is evident in their decisions. For example if there is a territory dispute, the king and his warriors assemble to show solidarity, and set forth to sort out the issue using ancient communication methods. Should the initial greeting sounds fail to establish an amicable situation, they murder each other.

If there weren't cutaways of the filmers sitting in a room talking about themselves and the rangers reactions, I would rate this a 10. People don't watch Lion documentaries to see the filmers on cam or to see the jeeps. Yes we get it, you and the rangers were sad to see cubs dying and 1 of the lions in the coalition getting killed. You can add that in to a separate behind-the-scenes or commentary track but not in the main documentary. If this was re-edited only showing voiceovers and no jeeps, I would give this a perfect 10.

In spite of those big flaws, this is still the best Lion documentary out. A solid 8/10 from me.