The southern Cape is home to some of South Africa's international movie stars. Sam and Tsotsi are tame African elephants who live at the Botlierskop Nature Reserve outside Klein-Brakrivier. The two can be seen in Pride, which was filmed in South Africa.
Pride is the story of Suki, a lioness cub, growing up in the Serengeti. Suki later rebels against her mother and her pride to mate with an unsuitable lion from the other side of the river. But when the others will not accept her and her own new cubs because of her unwillingness to provide for the pride, she reluctantly tries to return home. Will her family accept her back after she defected to the enemy pride? The film used real lions to tell the tale of Suki using new animation techniques that allow the animals to talk. The voice cast includes Kate Winslet, Rupert Graves, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Sean Bean and Robbie Coltrane.
Sam and Tsotsi, as well as the lions in the film, belong to Zimbabwean Viv Bristow (60), who lives in Polokwane. He saved the two elephants when they were orphaned by a culling programme. Viv, a professional animal handler, has lost his farms in Zimbabwe to the land grab but was able to relocate most of his animals to South Africa. They are used in films and TV commercials. Sam also appeared in a film with Isabella Rosselini. The two elephants also appeared in Elephant Boy, in a French commercial for Peugeot and an American commercial for Jeep Cherokee.
