WIDE ANGLE : WILD WOMEN GENTLE BEASTS
Wide Angle : Wild Women Gentle Beasts
Wide Angleis our books and films segment at continnect .
Today on Wide Angle , we look at Wild Women - Gentle Beasts , a film by Swiss film maker Anka Schmid
festivals . Wild Women - Gentle Beasts will be screened for the first time on the 29th of July on Swiss television SRF1 . Ahead of the screening , continnect caught up with Anka Schmid , to know more about the movie and the creative force behind it .
continnect : Let ’ s start with the obvious question , what was your inspiration behind making this movie ?
The
Story
A scene from the film © ankaschmid
Wild Women - Gentle Beasts explores the lives of women animal tamers from different cultures . The story unfolds through five women from four different countries – Namayca from France , Carmen from Germany , a motherdaughter duo Nadezhda and Aliya from Russia , and Anosa from Egypt . They earn a living by taming wild animals for circus shows . Their days revolve around lions , tigers and bears .
Anka : As a child , I dreamt that I want to be a female animal tamer . At that time , I use to watch a television series about circus and it featured a female tiger tamer . I was very fascinated by the circus . As I grew my ambitions changed and I wanted to be a filmmaker . But when I started taking my son to the circus , after 20 years I felt a connection . A fascination for this profession ( animal taming ), because you have to be totally passionate and it ’ s different if women do it because you work with your body and you work with something you cannot tame . So it ’ s this ambiguity . I also wanted to see how is the situation for women in different cultures working with animals . I wanted the movie to be more than a portrait of this profession , on what goes behind the scenes in a circus - The glamour , the shiny things and the hard work .
As audience we visit circus to be entertained . All we see in an hour of circus is glamour , shiny clothes and smiles in midst of loud claps and music . But what really goes behind the scenes of a circus ? What does it take to be an animal tamer ? Director Anka answers these questions as she tells the story of these women following them through their training days , the highs and lows and the beautiful moments with these wild beasts .
It took four years for the Wild Women - Gentle Beasts to be completed . Starting with the research , getting to know the women animal tamers , getting comfortable with the animals and finally to film and produce the documentary . Since 2015 , the film has been screened at many film
Anka with Anosa © ankaschmid
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