Synopsis

‘Sundarbans’ located along the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh is a wildlife reservation one restricting any human entrance. However, locals risk their lives and enter the forest of death in order to make a living. Beast and humans are on the brink of clashing when locals venture out deep into the woods to the tiger’s natural habitat while the tigers roam into the village. The quest for survival between humans and the tigers turns into a tragic encounter. What will happen in the end?

Director

• 

  Park Hwan-sung
  

  ​Representative Park Hwan-sung of a documentary film production company Blue Rhino Pictures has majored biology and film directing in the university and is an expert in nature documentary films. He has been producing documentary films about nature and environment for more than 10 years. He directed <The History of Suffering of Tigers<, <Malawi, War on Water Surface<, <A Boy and an Elephant<, <In the Name of the Father<, along with others. Especially EBS <Docuprime-The History of Suffering of Tigers< which unveiled the reality of endangered species won the award for best picture in 2011 at the Korean Program Director Grand Prize, and the grand prize at the Korean independent Program director award. <Tears of an Elephant Boy< which depicted elephants suffering for human greed and an agonized human who must abuse the elephants won the honor award for pitching in 2016 Korea Documentary Film Festival. Director Park Hwan-sung’s <AFRICA-The War for Water<(2009) and <The Shadow of Sundarbans<(2011) was shown at the 3rd and the 4th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival respectively.​

Review

The vast coastland Sundarbans located near the border of India and Bangladesh is a delta that boasts impressive width that can be compared to the likes of the Nile and the Amazon River. Carrying the meaning of ‘beautiful forest,’ Sundarbans is the world’s largest marine reservation where various sea and fresh-water species, tigers, alligators and sharks co-exist. Then from one point on, the Bengal tiger began attacking and devouring humans. These tigers who used to avoid confrontation with humans and were worshipped have long become the subject of fear. Sundarbans as one of the most underdeveloped areas in India, villagers chose to enter the jungle in order to survive the harsh environment surrounding them. They trained otters to catch fish, and as these wild animals became domesticated, they lost their ability to live in the wild. Hunger was barely satisfied by risking their lives raiding bee nests or catching whatever fish they could. However the more serious problem
following the destruction of the jungle by humans was the vicious cycle of tigers venturing into the villages and the villagers having no other choice but to kill the tigers. The tigers and humans become both the victimizer and
the victim. <The Shadow of Sundarbans> is an informative documentary which presents the realistic images of conflict between humans and wildlife occupying Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site while bringing more
depth through detailed explanation. The cameraman’s boldness is conveyed through the up- close-and-personal coverage of images ranging from a mangled man’s face and body after being attacked by a tiger, a fisherman’s
distressful regrets over losing his otter, hunters gathering honey without any protective gear to various wildlife such as cobras, tigers and alligators. The story of the otter family brings a moving smile to the face. And through
this all, it seems obvious in the end that there definitely needs to be an institutional device to resolve this endless conflict between wildlife and humans. [Jeong Min-ah / Via: 4th DMZ Docs]

Credits

• Director, Cinematographer, Editor  Park Hwan-sung
• Writer  Park Hwan-sung, Park So-hee

Production Company

• Production Company  Blue Rhino Pictures