The world’s first, dedicated Rhino Orphanage has teamed up with the filmmakers of a locally produced feature film to raise awareness of the war on poaching. Bloodline: Now or Never has just wrapped principal photography in South Africa. Part of the film was shot against the backdrop of the African wilderness on location at The Rhino Orphanage, at Legend Golf & Safari Resort.
The action adventure motion picture is helmed by South African filmmaker and Academy Award® nominee Darrell Roodt, and produced by Tariku Bogale – who plays the lead role of a Special Forces Captain and anti-poaching crusader. Bogale’s “Gabriel” goes on the rampage to take vengeance for the murder of his partner in conservation, and takes on a fight against one of the world’s most heinous crimes: the wholesale slaughter of rhino for commercial profit, predominantly in the East.
While the poaching crisis has been the subject of many news stories and documentaries, Bloodline: Now or Never has drawn media attention as the first-ever fictional feature film. The plot in the screenplay, co-written by Bogale and Roodt, takes the audiences on a hard-hitting journey into the complex network of the illegal wildlife trade and highlights the devastating impact the demand for rhino horn has on both human and animal lives.
Bogale, who has a reputation as a “serial entrepreneur” and visionary in the business community, identified The Rhino Orphanage as a natural charity beneficiary of the film, along with further global Wildlife organizations. “While our film is an action adventure for global cinema audiences, the action element engages the theme of good versus evil in a war with global relevance,” says Bogale. “As filmmakers we are acutely aware that the horrific events we portray in our story are happening every week in South Africa. It was a massive privilege for us to be permitted to shoot at a real Orphanage and we hope that the film will assist the Orphanage directors to continue their successful work in conservation and maintaining the safe haven that they have created for baby rhino.”
Established by Arrie van Deventer, The Rhino Orphanage is a non-profit charity, caring for orphaned and injured baby rhinos with the single aim of releasing them back into the wild. It was created as the result of a lack of a specialized place for rearing baby rhinos, which have been orphaned as a consequence of the current poaching crisis, which feeds the illegal trade in horns.
The Rhino Orphanage director, Pete Richardson, said that the orphanage was proud to assist the filmmakers with a couple of key scenes. “While the rehabilitation project is not open to the public, we are always keen to help when we can see that the bigger picture is served by us giving controlled access to those with conservation as a key aim of their work. In this case, the filmmakers were sensitive not to impact the daily routines at the Orphanage and reduced their presence to a skeleton film crew on site.”
Bogale is confident that the wide release of the film will raise awareness of the plight of the rhino and hopefully the captivating plot, filmed in the style of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, will involve audiences in the war against the massacre of the animal.
Bloodline: Now or Never is produced by Tariku Bogale and his team at Dual Films. The film will have its World Premiere at a major international Film Festival, with a theatrical release in South Africa.
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