Set in the Mombo region of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, the film explores the life of a female leopard, Legadema, as she matures from a cub to an adult.
Jeremy Irons, voice actor of Scar from Disney's 1994 animation The Lion King, narrates the film.
Unlike the standard nature documentary, Eye of the Leopard pieces together a series of flashbacks, covering the major events from her childhood all the way to adulthood[2].
At 8 days Legadema, meaning "light of the sky" in Setswana,[1] is introduced as an eight-day-old cub with a distinctive birthmark feature.
Legadema learns survival strategies from her mother such as moving stealthily and escaping large predators.
There is one scene where Legadema's mother evades a pride of lions by performing a 'locking-wrist' which allows her to quickly scale up a tall tree.
South-African filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert are a husband-wife duo who have produced over 40 National Geographic films.
[2] The Jouberts' aim for the documentary was to arouse the curiosity of audiences, erode ignorance and share the value of wild places.
Because of the remoteness of the site, where the nearest town would take half an hour by flight, the crew members received food deliveries from a bush plane.
[4] According to Daily Bruin,[5] the Jouberts needed to wake up at 4 am every day and follow Legedema's movements until 9 pm.
Six months into filming, Dereck Joubert gave the young leopard cub her name of Legadema, meaning "lightning".
Over the filming period, Beverely Joubert admitted she became attached to the leopardess and felt maternally protective over her.
It shows the leopards stalking, hunting and killing their prey, but also them being attacked and threatened by predators such as lions, baboons and hyenas.
As of 2020, according to Rotten Tomatoes,[8] a review aggregation website, the film achieved a score of 88% based on 17 user ratings.
They are in charge of two eco-tourism businesses, Wilderness Safaris and the Great Plains Conservation which aim to deliver sustainable practices.
During an Australian promotional tour of Eye of the Leopard, the Jouberts made some comments on the wildlife filmmaking industry.
They mentioned how the shrinking budget given to wildlife documentaries leads to the "wham, bam thank you ma'am industry"[4] and too often, the audience is shown the 'money shot' (Sullivan, 2016) or a superficial depiction of the subject.
[4] He argues that the entertainment value which underpins that particular style of nature documentaries compromises the accuracy and fair reportage of animal behaviour.
Not only is it confronting for wildlife, such an attitude also sets a bad example for how people should interact with animals (Palmer, 2007; Aufderheide, 2007).