Grace and Grief

One of the most moving and heartbreaking documentaries I have ever seen, Cheetahs:Fast Track to Freedom, from the BBC 2004 Nature series, is a love poem to the heart of mother Africa. Simon King raises two orphaned cheetah cubs, Toki and Sambu, slowly and lovingly preparing them for the brutal and awesome adventure of being reintroduced to the wild, from their first kill, to crossing a body of water. He spent two years of his life filming and following them, bonding in a way that is unimaginable to most of us. From the sublimely haunting moments of mystery that is life in the wild, to the devastating loss of Sambu by lions while sleeping, it reminds us of the very meaningful truth that the most tragic thing for a human being to do is fall in love with a wild animal. Unforgettable.