User reviews

I think I'm able to say that I have seen some pretty good documentaries during 60 + years of Television and Film, from Armand & Michaela Denis and Hans & Lottie Hass, David Attenborough when he first started appearing on TV in the 50s up until now. This was a 'standout' about the Kalahari Desert and Okavango Delta and takes us through lightening electrical storm, baking hot days. Fires and rains when they finally arrive. As narrator Regé - Jean Page says, here, teamwork is the key and the means of survival. Beautifully filmed and certainly one of THE best in a very long line.

I loved this documentary. A very upstanding documentary that shows the way of life in the Kalahari Desert. It was beautifully filmed and one of the best documentaries of 2022. I would definitely recommend this documentary to familes.

The shots they got in this are beyond comprehension. They had multiple cameras on the subjects and put them together well. The tracking of the animal families was amazing and I applaud the phenomenal camera work that was put in to get these consistent, storytelling shots in the wild.

It also didn't go too preachy, scare-mongering, global warming, and all-the-animals-are-dying politics on the audience.

Amazing views and shots and a beautifully told story. In addition to that wonderful picture - the amazing, soothing voice of the narrator. Admirations to people who made this possible.

Netflix usually has a tough time being tough-it frequently cuts out rather than observe violence. Perhaps in a family-kind way, it repeats that pattern to a lesser degree in Surviving Paradise: A Family Tale, in which directors Matt Meech and Renee Godfrey take a year on the Okavango Delta of the Kalahari Desert to trace how prominent animal families survive the hostile home.

As motifs go, this survival doc goes as far as it can, to a successful degree, to hammer home that survival for the constantly-moving animal population is family, whether lion or painted wolf, water buffalo or impala. If they stay within the circle of their family, usually headed by mother, they will be safe, fed, and loved.

Amidst the gorgeous photography, be it aerial shots of the expansive desert over which countless herds roam or the hypnotising eye of a lion, is the constant hunt of one species for another. While occasionally a kill happens, Netflix can be counted on to avoid the blood or just cut away once an animal has another with the deadly vampire neck bite.

Surviving Paradise is appropriate for family because it is about family and its warm, protecting embrace in the face of ever-present danger. The sequences with the lioness guiding and protecting her pride are saturated with sweetness, and, well, humanity. Dad is older now and unable to protect them, adding a modern touch to the emergence of women as primary providers. The baby elephant couldn't be cuter or safer when trotting under mother.

Credit should be given to the narration by Rege-Jean Page, whose soft modulation sucks out the terror and makes us believe it is all Nature's way. His veiled allusions to climate change is a tribute to all the filmmakers-the truth they show with their cameras is all you need to know about our responsibility to protect in the way the lioness does her babies.

Netflix gets it right, perhaps erring only on the side of innocence, an unwillingness to show the gory reality of the hunt. I can think of worse faults.

I love the family story in this which helps you connect in a unique way. I simply couldn't put it down. Now I want to visit the Kalahari. I have seen many nature documentaries but this is simply the most beautiful. I am so impressed that after the huge success of Bridgerton, a star would choose such a project to help a good cause. Looking forward to many more in future.

I have not watched such a quality documentary so far, the image quality is very good, the narration is very nice and it is a truly heavenly place, I definitely recommend you to watch it.

Although this documentary has taken a (conspicuous) leaf out of the book of "Okavango: River of Dreams" , I still like it. It is beautiful and the animals shown in it are great.