Ideas
The lyin’, the snitch and the warlord: What ‘The Lion King’ teaches us
The terrifying, dystopian satire - and its 2019 remake - tell us all we need to know about the SA we live in
Twenty-five years ago, a dark, dystopian American film predicted the rise of modern politics in a chilling examination of patriarchal power, unearned hereditary privilege and intense xenophobia. That film was called The Lion King.
It was a simple, brutal satire.
Lions rule the African savannah. They see themselves as benevolent rulers, but then again, they would. Perhaps one might have given them the benefit of the doubt if they had set up a coalition government of predators, prey and scavengers, monitored by a strong judiciary, but they haven’t because they’re lions, and lions rule by murdering everything that is smaller and slower than them...
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