Born Free/Living Free

Synopsis

You've got to have a cast iron heart not to be moved by the true story-based wildlife drama Born Free (1966, 92 mins) and its sequel Living Free (1972, 88 mins). A real lump-in-the-throat button-pusher, it depicts the fascinating adventures of Joy Adamson and her game warden husband George - a real-life couple who raised an ultra-cute, orphaned lion cub called Elsa to adulthood before reluctantly releasing her back into the wilds of Kenya. Based on Joy's bestselling book, the film favours genuine warmth over saccharine sentimentality, demonstrating the joys and heartache of working so intimately with nature. The follow-up, Living Free, traces the fate of Elsa's own offspring following her death, as the Adamsons fight to keep the lioness's three cubs out of the zoo.