MAYA
"Masterful presentation of our relationship with wild animals and the natural world around us." - One World Film Festival Jury
Daily life at one of Iran's biggest zoos is interrupted when Mohsen, the head keeper, takes Maya, a 4 year old Bengal tiger, to perform in a fiction film in the north of the country. Mohsen transports Maya to an old sanctuary near the film shoot on the edge of the Caspian Sea which was once home to the now extinct caspian tiger. Between shooting dates, Mohsen allows her to run around in the almost deserted landscape. With the freedom to roam around without bars for the first time in her life, the animal’s suppressed instincts rise to the surface.