These tigers don't fear you. They hunt you. Welcome to the Sunderbans.
Sunderbans (Forest of Beauty) is in West Bengal, India, and is the only place on Earth that is the natural habitat of Royal Bengal Tigers that have never known to be fearful of humans. One tiger has been known to kill three fully grown men, leaving behind orphans and widows who belong to poor tribes, dependent on harvesting wild honey and fishing, in a swampy mangrove region. About 80 people are killed annually by these ferocious beasts with razor-sharp jaws, whose forepaws can shatter bones, and sharp teeth can pierce a skull in one bite. Amidst religious superstitions, the narrator attempts to explain the cause behind their taste for human meat in a region devoid of electricity, roadways, firearms and safe drinking water, and why the villagers continue to live there despite of being stalked and mauled on land and water alike.
Cinematography
Dense mangrove atmosphere that makes you feel watched
Direction
Borowik refuses to romanticize predator or prey
Sound
Tiger roars that will activate your lizard brain
Director
Oksana Borowik
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Sunderbans worship Bonbibi, a Muslim-folk deity who supposedly protects honey-gatherers from tigers — the film barely mentions her, arguably missing the full spiritual complexity of local risk management.
Peter MacNeill recorded his narration without visiting India; his detached Canadian gravitas creates an unintentionally colonial tension with the on-screen suffering.
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