“An intelligent, nuanced take on why the story is more complex than it first appeared”

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Cecil: The Lion and the Dentist, Channel 4

“Skilfully, Arthur Cary’s film Cecil: The Lion and the Dentist (Channel 4) showed that this really wasn’t about one lion but so much else: land rights in Africa, the fragile balance between conservation, tourism and the lucrative hunting business, and the continued whiff of colonial overlordship. It’s a film that took its time — too much perhaps; this could have seriously done with an edit. But the opening scenes, which charted the founding of the Hwange National Park where Cecil was shot, were mesmerising: African sunsets and people with khaki shorts rhapsodising about their love of the landscape and the stories of bushmen who hunt only for survival. [Walter] Palmer (unsurprisingly) declined to be interviewed, but Theo Bronkhorst — who took Palmer on the hunt and is featured in the infamous picture — did. And whatever you think about shooting wild animals for fun (I’m not a fan), he certainly suffered.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“For a brief period in 2015, a Minnesota dentist was public enemy number one. Walter Palmer was the trophy hunter who killed Cecil, a 12-year-old lion and star attraction at Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. Feature-length documentary Cecil: The Lion and the Dentist (Channel 4) doesn’t quibble with the portrayal of Palmer as a villain. But it is also an intelligent, nuanced take on why the story is more complex than it first appeared. It features many different voices and asks whether our reaction to the death of one wild animal was down to a romanticised, “Disneyfied” view of Africa, at odds with the brutal reality.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“Crowds gathered outside the dentist’s practice, forcing it to close for nearly six months. He reopened and is still practising in Bloomington. According to his website (which makes no mention of Cecil), he studied at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, a qualification bound to instil confidence in any patient. If you think that, even now, 11 years later, Palmer might be too much of a coward to face the cameras and justify himself… you’d be right.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“A good documentary should, of course, raise questions. But not this many more than it answers.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

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