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00:03:18,338 --> 00:03:19,546
Listen well.

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One day, all the animals
who are domesticated

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humiliated, imprisoned by man

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will leave,
will go far away

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to live once again
as citizens of the Wild Nation.

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Everything starts anew

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as if it was the first dawn,
as it were fifty million years ago.

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In this land,
where it all began

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in the animals Africa,
an amorous combat between impalas.

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Listen well.

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The Bushmen,
the oldest inhabitants of Africa

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who can still
speak the language of animals

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say that the cheetah
always attacks impalas

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when they are not vigilant:
the time of love.

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At 70 miles an hour,
he is the swiftest of beasts

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but he doesn't run for long.

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Like death,
he prefers to surprise.

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When he runs
between sky and water

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the big hippopotamus
is as graceful as a horse.

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00:12:16,254 --> 00:12:18,171
The tiger is of all the animals

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the most ferocious,
the most voluptuous.

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He chooses to hunt at night.

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They are the first form

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drawn by the first hand
on the wall of the first cave.

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They are the first image
on the fabric of our first dreams.

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Animals are
our first dream companions.

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Look well at this insect

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the praying mantis
is a living code.

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Somewhere,
another praying mantis

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will receive her message
and understand it.

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A message she has danced
for two hundred million years.

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Long ago,
animals with their bodies

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drew the first signs
expressed the first emotions.

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00:18:17,296 --> 00:18:18,629
Long ago

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animals knew what love is

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what death is

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what the rhythm of life is.

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00:18:25,213 --> 00:18:28,504
Look well
at this millennial insect.

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Its rhythm and language

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can teach us the one lasting truth:
instinctual life.

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This almost human form,
the sloth

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has been journeying towards us
for fifty million years.

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He is one of the oldest animals
in the world.

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He drinks only dew.

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His age old companion,
the great anteater

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also lives along the Amazon river.

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He is called lazy
in all the languages of the world.

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He sleeps nineteen hours a day.

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At top speed
he travels two hundred yards an hour.

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His digestion time is eight days.

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00:19:37,379 --> 00:19:40,254
How has this prehistoric animal

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been able to pass through so many
millions of centuries unarmed?

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How many thousands of years

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to make out of the toothless head
of the anteater

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the perfect instrument
for putting ants to death?

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With his 24 inch long gluey tongue

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he traps the pounds of ants
he eats every day.

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It's in a tree

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that the sloth
is the swiftest and the happiest.

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The firebird or red ibis.

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The Indians of the Orinoco river
call it the bird of love.

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Joining together heaven and earth,
they expand in space.

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For the Hindus

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the crane is three times divine

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in beauty, in song, in movement.

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By imitating her,
man learned to talk.

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The pelican
always dives in one swoop

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for the small fish
at the bottom of the river.

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00:24:58,463 --> 00:25:03,796
The handsomest, the biggest,
the lightest of wind sailors

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the frigate bird

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whom the Indians of Amazonia

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call simply the bird
or the God Bird.

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A wingspan of six feet
for a surprisingly small body.

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They say that the frigate bird

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created the earth
with one stroke of his wings.

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In mating seasons,
it's the male who calls the females.

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It's the male
who swells out the bursting point

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the red naked skin of his neck.

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It's the male who hammers out
his percussive love cry

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while for a very long time
the females remain indifferent.

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Until exhaustion,
he will call his lovers

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who will come from the sky.

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Midway between earth and sky

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the pink flamingo.

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The flamingo first witness
of all earthly adventures.

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For it's from the sky

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one can really see the goings-on
on the ground.

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In the desert, a wild race

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the hare of Afghanistan
pursued by his death the fox.

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Like a character in a child's dream,
the jump rabbit.

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For him, everything is a reason
to play and to be alert.

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His love cry
carries far into the Kalahari desert.

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His timeless enemy, the jackal.

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Upright in the desert,
fragile sentries

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the suricates.

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Small alert rodents, always ready
to forget fear for the sake of a game.

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They flee up at the cry
of the rapacious Sagittarius bird.

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Elegant, all feathered out

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he looks as he's made himself up
for the killing.

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In the land of animals

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a mountain
is just a continuation of a desert.

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Twelve thousand feet up

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drank with space and thin air

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the ibex.

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Mad with love,
happy to exhaustion.

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From the alps of Europe
to the summits of the Palmyres

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the ibex, magical creature

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springs off empty space
to fly over the abyss.

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In India, motionless in mid river

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the Anhinga, a fishing bird.

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For the Hindus, in the beginning
there was the elephant.

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It is he who holds up
the four corners of the earth.

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He lives to be 100

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grows throughout his lifetime
procreating until 80.

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An orphan always finds
another she elephant

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who will look after him.

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The elephant
has known so much for so long

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that sometimes he stops
to think about it all.

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The African elephant is more powerful
than the elephant of India.

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In one day

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he can walk 18 miles,
swallow 80 pounds of food

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and drink 15 gallons of water.

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When God had finished creating
all the animals of Africa

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he realized that he still had
some pieces left.

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He put them together as best he could
and made the elephant.

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To comfort him to being last
he received some extras

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memory and lightness.

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Dusk is the quiet hour
when the animals go to water.

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For an African, it's the hour
when dreams come to man.

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It's the hour when,
if you listen well

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you will hear a certain music.

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At nightfall,
all the flesh eating animals

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all the great beasts of the world
go in silence.

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In the south,
the lion of the African savannah.

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The cheetah of the plains.

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To the east,
the Indian panther.

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To the west,
the puma of the two Americas.

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To the north,
the night of the wolf.

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The boar will fight a long battle

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against the organized horde
of the wolves.

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The lone wolf
will run a long way.

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He'll run during his whole wolf's life
from land to land

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to the mountains of Persia

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where we meet another runner,
the shy mouflon.

145
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The rhinoceros is prehistory alive.

146
00:53:19,796 --> 00:53:21,629
The giraffe

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feminine and in love.

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This tall beauty is mute.

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The neck is too long
for vocal chords

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but perfect for expressing love
and inventing caresses.

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The otter, called by the Indians
waterdog or friend of the moon.

152
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He swims as fast as a fish.

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He barks to sound the alarm.

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The panther, absolute danger.

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She can swim, run, climb.

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She attacks man and beasts alike.

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But on certain days,
on the banks of the Ganges

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she is a lover.

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On the other side of the world,
along the Amazon river

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two jaguars.

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The male takes all two water hens
all for himself.

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But the time of love is over
and the female too can be fast.

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To protect her prey
from other beasts

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the African panther hoists
into a tree the impala she has killed.

165
01:02:31,379 --> 01:02:35,504
According to the Bushmen,
the greatest hunters of Africa

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01:02:35,588 --> 01:02:37,963
no one can see the panther hunting

167
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because she is quicker
than lightening.

168
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Watch closely.

169
01:03:16,254 --> 01:03:20,546
And sealed in the branches of the tree
she's on the lookout for living prey.

170
01:03:32,588 --> 01:03:33,754
Watch closely.

171
01:03:33,879 --> 01:03:35,963
She sees the baboon
before he sees her.

172
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The oryx.

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01:07:07,546 --> 01:07:09,213
In ancient Egypt

174
01:07:09,296 --> 01:07:12,088
man believed he had the power
to increase fourfold

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his saber like horns.

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The fight between males
is often mortal.

177
01:09:34,421 --> 01:09:38,171
It's the Oryx who inspired
the sculpture in movement

178
01:09:38,254 --> 01:09:39,754
which is the African mask.

179
01:10:21,879 --> 01:10:24,463
The Bushmen sing:

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01:10:25,296 --> 01:10:28,254
Mask: image of supernatural forces.

181
01:10:28,754 --> 01:10:32,296
Mask: sacred way leading to ecstasy.

182
01:10:51,838 --> 01:10:53,213
The greater Kudu

183
01:10:53,296 --> 01:10:56,713
so difficult to spot
that it was said it didn't exist

184
01:10:56,796 --> 01:10:59,046
that it was just a hunter's dream.

185
01:11:46,796 --> 01:11:48,671
The Bushmen sing:

186
01:11:49,004 --> 01:11:52,004
Children,
all the animals are now awake.

187
01:11:52,088 --> 01:11:56,129
They leave their resting places
led by the great Kudu.

188
01:11:56,213 --> 01:12:00,046
With his long leaps
he creates the light of day.

189
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He can leaps so high

190
01:12:01,963 --> 01:12:03,713
that if he likes
he can eat the moon.

191
01:13:54,879 --> 01:13:57,546
This strange antelope
who looks more like a buffalo

192
01:13:57,629 --> 01:14:00,671
is the gnu,
the lion's favorite prey.

193
01:16:32,796 --> 01:16:36,254
For the Bushmen,
the oldest inhabitants of Africa

194
01:16:36,338 --> 01:16:38,338
the fight
between the lion and the gnu

195
01:16:38,421 --> 01:16:41,296
personifies the opposition
between sun and shadow

196
01:16:41,379 --> 01:16:43,338
day and night

197
01:16:43,421 --> 01:16:44,921
summer and winter.

198
01:20:19,879 --> 01:20:22,338
The lion can go a long time
without eating

199
01:20:22,421 --> 01:20:24,463
and he kills only for food.

200
01:21:39,713 --> 01:21:41,463
A lion's life:

201
01:21:41,546 --> 01:21:44,963
hunting, sleeping, caressing.

202
01:23:10,671 --> 01:23:13,796
It is said in Africa:
when the lion loves

203
01:23:13,879 --> 01:23:15,338
the sun stands still.

204
01:23:39,004 --> 01:23:41,963
In reality, for the adult male

205
01:23:42,046 --> 01:23:44,046
it's the beginning of hard times.

206
01:23:44,463 --> 01:23:47,879
First he has to get rid of his son,
a young male

207
01:23:48,129 --> 01:23:49,921
who would like to enter the game.

208
01:24:22,088 --> 01:24:24,963
Then without food, without rest

209
01:24:25,046 --> 01:24:26,713
he follows the lioness.

210
01:24:44,463 --> 01:24:48,254
Always the asker,
always almost refused.

211
01:24:48,796 --> 01:24:52,338
Often provoked
and then kept at a distance.

212
01:24:57,254 --> 01:25:00,004
This goes on for ten days
and ten nights.

213
01:29:41,504 --> 01:29:45,754
The lioness is the one
who commands the hunt.

214
01:29:45,838 --> 01:29:48,254
The lioness is the one
who grants love.

215
01:30:11,629 --> 01:30:14,129
My beloved is likened to a gazelle.

216
01:32:47,129 --> 01:32:50,879
SUBTITLING SILVERWAY MEDIA