Born To Rule

They’re feared. They’re powerful. But they aren’t born that way. In the heart of Africa’s savannah, three young cats are learning what it takes to survive. The lion, the leopard and the cheetah may one day rule over this wild kingdom, but first they must overcome the vulnerability of being young. This film provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of these future predators, each struggling through their own rites of passage.

We follow Ben, a lion cub born into a pride always on the move, shadowed by buffalo herds and hyena mobs. Jama, a young male leopard, lives a far more secretive life, hidden among the trees, dependent on the stealth and devotion of a mother who’s nearing the end of her patience. And Thobe, a cheetah cub of the open grasslands, must rely on speed and instinct if he is to survive alone.

We meet our trio in trouble. These are not graceful predators in their prime, but adolescents in crisis. Ben is banished in a brutal ambush by his own father. Jama is locked in a showdown with the very mother who raised him. Thobe wakes alone on the open plains. His mother is gone. No one will feed him now. It’s kill or starve. 

None of them are fully grown. None of them are fully capable. But now they’re on the path to independence and they have to start somewhere.