...	(Director)
Jan Lampen	...	(Writer)
Lady Liuwa	...	Lioness
Herbert Brauer	...	Self
Benjamin Willem	...	Composer
Nathan Pilcher	...	Camera Operator

Comments: This is the best of the Last Lioness Lady Liuwa docs. The others were made four years earlier and end with the introduction of two translocated male lions to the area because that was a BFG and took five years (and one failure). The suggestion is that all will be lion cubs and rainbows going forward)

What happens, though, is one of the males is shot by a poacher, and the filmmakers discover, or deduce, that Lady Liuwa is infertile. Oops. So they translocate in two young females. One of them is killed by poachers. The other female runs off to Angola so they have to catch her and bring her back

This one ends with the three of them, Lady Liuwa, the male, and the young female, finally accepting one another to the point that they make a kill and have dinner together. Call it a pride, but still no cubs

This one ends at that point, happy enough to report that Lady Liuwa at least has some lion friends

The Internets report that another male lion was translocated in and successfully mated with the young female. Lady Liuwa died of natural causes shortly after that but at least there are lions on the Liuwa plains again (humans had killed all of the resident lions there, except Lady, around the turn of this century)

In the end it is a touching story about a lioness who survived over a decade by herself in the area. It has a few manufactured plot twists, but so what. All these things do

The narration is a little male "golly wow" for my taste but not a deal breaker


Summary: Filmmaker Herbert Brauer discovers the last remaining lioness of Liuwa in Zambia purely by chance when she steps out of myth and into his viewfinder. A remarkable bond develops between filmmaker and this lonely lioness that he calls Lady. Inspired by her resilience, African Parks and the Carnivore team at the Zambia Wildlife Authority decide to re-establish a viable pride in Liuwa. They build a shelter also known as a boma. They dart two males in a neighboring park and transport them to Lady's core territory. Lady considers both males but after a year, she's still not pregnant. To bolster the chances of establishing a pride, two young females are imported but their bond collapses when the males attack them once they're released from the enclosure. One bolts for the Angolan border, the other goes missing and is presumed dead when the scientists find her collar in a river. A helicopter rescue attempt is launched to find the other female before she crosses the Angolan border. Anxious to find females, the two male lions leave and walk to Angola in record time.

Death waits for one of them in the form of an armed farmer. Of the five lions, now only three remain. The young female, now fully grown and in estrous finally mate with the male. Lady is excluded from this new romance but her involvement is vital. She can no longer produce a cub, but she can impart her survival skills. Unexpectedly, they hunt together. Lady steps into her leadership position with aplomb. The Kingdom is secured. Lions are back in Liuwa.—Aquavision TV Productions


The circle of life is broken in Zambia's Liuwa Plains National Park. Settlers, poachers, and professional hunters have almost wiped out the lion population, leaving just one lioness in the vast wilderness - but not for long. This is the story of "Lady Liuwa," a lion queen without a kingdom, and Herbert Brauer, a wildlife cinematographer on a six-year journey to find her a mate in hopes of forming a new pride. It's a mission full of setbacks and disappointments, chaos and danger, and the magic of unexpected relationships