Kuma & Bodana

The incredible journey of Kuma and Bodana. In 2010 only 3500 wild tigers remained on earth, and in Kazakhstan the last one was shot seventy years ago. Two Siberian tigers from the shelter of Stichting Leeuw in the Netherlands travel to the Ile-Balkhash reserve: the first tigers ever returned to a country where they went extinct. The journey itself I covered alone, filming and photographing every step, from the crates at Stichting Leeuw via Frankfurt and Almaty to a Russian transport helicopter deep into the reserve, until the moment a tiger set its first paw on Kazakh ground. The images and photographs travelled the world. Made for WWF, Stichting Pharus and Stichting Leeuw by Living Image, directed by Ruben Juch.