THE LAST HORNS OF AFRICA

In 'The Last Horns of Africa', De Bruno Austin explores all sides of the matter - the people who try to protect them, the people who try to save them, the people who kill and profit from them, and the useless, idiotic bureaucrats in between. While the film does cover all bases, from the rangers at the Kruger National Park sworn to protect them to the woman who runs the world's largest rhino orphanage and the poachers themselves, it's ultimately flat, devoid of inspiring any real emotion or riveting intrigue. Even the sequence where the rangers set up a sting operation to help take down the kingpins of the illegal horn trade lacks suspense. Audiences have been spoiled in the past with groundbreaking documentaries such as 'Blackfish' and 'The Cove', which made suspenseful must-sees out of ethical animal plights. On screen, we the audience can empathise with the emotional turmoil many of the people portrayed are suffering through, but we ourselves are not afforded those emotions due to lacklustre story structure and development.

While the rhino horn trade, poaching practices and the efforts many go through to protect these magnificent creatures is vitally important and is a story worth telling, there are ways to do it and ways not to in order to reach the audience you need and create the sense of urgency required. This is sadly not that film.