“The boy and the tiger” told by Brando Quilici: “Nobody can save himself alone”

“Up until a century ago there were around 100 thousand specimens of tigers in the world, today there are only 3,500. A number that really makes an impression and that continues to decline, despite the protection policies”. Brando Quilicidocumentary director for National Geographic and the film “My friend Nanuk”, shot in the Arctic in 2014, returns to the cinema with a new story where adventure and the environment are still intertwined, and tells us about the thousand risks that Nature undergoes due to man, including the disappearance of the big cats. “The boy and the tiger” presented at the Rome Film Fest and from this weekend in cinemas it seems almost a sequel to Nanuk and his polar bear.

But Quilici from the glaciers now takes us in Nepalthe natural habitat of tigers, and it is here that we follow the story of a twelve-year-old boy, Balmani (Sunny Pawar), who after surviving an earthquake runs away from an orphanage on his trail, the director of the institute, Hannah (played by Claudia Gerini) and befriend a tiger, with whom he faces poachers and a long series of obstacles and highly risky situations. From the subtropical jungle of Chitwan, Balmani escapes to Kathmandu to reach the peaks of the Himalayas and its mountains. In the film, shot between Nepal and Bhutan, where tigers go up to 4 thousand meters, legends and real-life characters intertwine.

The risk of extinction of tigers

“The idea of ​​telling a story with a tiger in the center came to me after reading an interview with Leonardo Dicaprio passionate about the WWF project Save the Tiger and of which he had also spoken to the United Nations – says Qulici – It seemed so cruel to me the fate reserved for these proud animals, but victims of violence, which have become the symbol of how priceless and fragile the environment that surrounds us is and that must be safeguarded. . Just think of the illegal trafficking of exotic animals: a killed tiger is worth $ 50,000 and in these parts of the world it means enormous wealth. And then the meeting with Reinhold Messner who, while shooting a documentary about the Himalayas, told me the legend of the Tiger’s Nest, the monastery where Padmasambhava would arrive accompanied by a tiger. I told myself that we needed to make a film for young people, tell them how important the conservation of certain species is.

“the boy and the tiger” – The trailer

“A world without tigers is not possible and the only way is the coexistence between men and big cats, in respect”, says Brando Quilici who from his father Folco, the great director of documentaries on Nature has inherited not only the sense of adventure and discovery, but also a scientific rigor during filming and on set.

“Children will be the ones to save the planet”