‘Poacher’ tells a sad and true story of how our wildlife will probably disappear completely in the next forty-fifty years. Under the appearance of an action movie, ‘Poacher’ is one of the most inspiring shorts raising awareness on a given subject.
Mutua tries to make a living for his family through hunting, so as you have probably guessed, what he does is not just for trophies, but for providing food and shelter to his family. At some point, he gets into trouble encountering some other poachers, and the heat starts packing in the narrative.
Tom Whitworth's project has many interesting and strong points that we are going to cover in the next few lines. First of all, we really liked the acting of Brian Ogola, the main character. This role needed a man to portray hunger and desperation, and Ogola did an amazing job being as authentic as one could be in such a role. Another great thing about it is the editing – everything runs smoothly, no unnecessary shots, not a single second wasted, everything made with crystal clarity. On top of that, the dialogue is the true winner of it. The brutal and sincere lines are always cutting through our souls deeper than the blades used for cutting ivory. When Mutua and Nic are bumping into something grim that sums up the evilness of the human mind, they are having some really powerful dialogue bits. It is hard to talk about the story without spoiling it, so we will stop now.
‘Poacher’ is the kind of film that we would use in campaigns against wildlife brutality. It can be the voice of the one that suffers or the voice of everything that died without justice. This short is, more than anything, a lesson to those who forget how much damage they might have done to this world during the past few years, and can definitely be used as a wake-up call for all of us.
Written by Vlad A. G