“Hugo van Lawick's moving epic of the cycles of life on the Serengeti, showing the vast landscapes of Africa and the lions, jackals, cheetah, giraffes, wildebeest and many other animals living there”

Serengeti Symphony is a spectacular nature film by Hugo van Lawick that shows the astounding landscape and exotic animals of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, East Africa.

It brings the beauty of Africa to life like never before, with close-up colourful images of the terrain and unimaginable glimpses of the wildlife, allowing the true character of the landscape and the grace and spirit of every animal to shine through.

This film shows an completely new way of filming. The sequences have been edited harmoniously with wildlife live sounds and popular classical music. It shows exciting and humorous situations, without getting bloody.

It begins and ends with a brief narration, but the power of this compassionate portrait lies in a deceptively simple combination of images and music.

The film shows a wide variety of animals such as lions, cheetahs, zebras, elephants, giraffes, crocodiles and many other species. Alternating we see the pure landscape, the exceptional skies end the beautiful light variations. The seasonal changes vary from tropical rainstorms to dessert-like dryness.

Serengeti Symphony is an ode to nature and shows wildlife in its widest variety. This film is Hugo van Lawick’s personal masterpiece, combining his decades of experience studying and filming wildlife, creating the most intimate portrait of natural animal life.

PLEASE NOTE: Serengeti Symphony contains two short narrations in Dutch, one at the start and one at the finish, but this takes up less than 5 minutes in total and barely detracts from the wonderful film and music.
The rest of the film (approx 75 mins) has no narration, just the ambient noise of the Serengeti and its animals, and carefully arranged classical music.
The music is from 18 different, popular classical compositions, incl Carnival of the Animals, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1812 Overture, etc.
This is an imported DVD - the description on the box/packaging and the menu are not in English, but the bonus film is in English.

Filmed by Hugo van Lawick and Matt Aeberhard
Produced & directed by Hugo van Lawick for Nature Conservation Films (1998)
Music by Laurens van Rooyen.

View a sample of this film below (fight between lions and buffalo) or visit YouTube.

To watch a preview of the Hugo van Lawick wildlife collection follow this link (opens in a new window)