Movie Thoughts: Cheetah: Fatal Instinct (2013)

• Released: December 11, 2022
• Directed by: Reinhard Radke
  
• Running time: 45 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A documentary about two cheetah mothers, one young and one experienced, trying to keep their cubs alive into adulthood.

My Thoughts

I like cheetahs quite a lot, but despite that do not know that much about them aside from the very basics. So seeing this documentary was a good start to get more knowledge. We follow two unnamed cheetah mothers and their cubs. One of them is inexperienced, and this is her first litter. The other cheetah is an older female who has had more litters before, but is this time around having a very hard time keeping her youngsters alive.

The documentary was beautifully filmed and of course informative. I of course rooted so much for these cheetahs to raise their cubs into adulthood, despite both being (to an extent) rivals as they're occupying the same patch of land and hunting the same prey. In the end, I was sad to see that the older female was forced to leave due to the dangerous circumstances for her young. And, surprisingly, the younger female's cubs could stay in the territory and made it.

A strong tale about family that doesn't shy away from showing the darker but also the lighter and prettier aspects of life on the savannah. Definitely a recommendation. I quite like director Radke's documentaries that I've seen so far, though I do have to admit this one started to lose my attention just a little bit around the 35 minutes mark. Still, I consider myself a fan of his documentaries. Apparently he made one on hyenas, which I definitely want to check out sometime in the future because those are one of my favorite animals.