ZOOPHOBIA

ZOOPHOBIA | documentary directed by Pablo Chehebar and Nicolas Iacouzzi.

Christmas night in 2012 was special: while the temperature reached 50 degrees celcius and the sky was filled with fireworks and firecrackers, Winner, the last Zoo´s polar bear, died at the Buenos Aires Zoo. The tragic death would unleash massive protests, leading to the closure of an institution with 140 years of history, with the promise of moving the animals on exhibit and transforming it into an Ecopark.

Soon after, based on an episode of Star Trek, a Batman-loving lawyer manages to get a court to declare Sandra, the last orangutan in the Zoo, a “Non-Human Person” for the first time in the history of mankind. In what was a landmark ruling in animal rights history.

An Argentine story full of passions, embarrassing missteps and memorable characters takes place today in the heart of Buenos Aires, with unforeseeable consequences for the whole world.

Filmed in the cities of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Chaco, Berlin, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Rostock and Hamburg, the film documents the precise moment when the relationship between Homo sapiens and the rest of the animals will change forever.