Usually there is a core area reserved for the animals and a further buffer before any major population centers. But the Ranthambore preserve in northern India is right next to a village, separated only by an easily jumped stone wall.
It’s further complicated by the steady traffic of tourists in caravans out to get a glimpse at wildlife — and the annual pilgrimage to an ancient temple inside the preserve.
Pereira has access to a lot of the leading activists on each side of the issue and to grieving family members of those who have been attacked by T24. The film reconstructs the night of the attack like a carefully delineated detective story.
Tigers may have proven to be especially fascinating subject matter for streaming sagas, such as “Tiger King,” Pereira’s “Tiger 24” doesn’t seem to have the same kind of flamboyant, reckless characters of that much-watched Netflix series. The animals, too, are not the sickly drugged variety that were traded on the black market, but strong and vital.
The director says he stuck to a visual style that mimicked the animal — constantly moving and tended toward the wide shot as a reminder of how much space the tigers had to move. The music from Pepijn Caudron keeps things tense.
A step beyond a well-shot nature film, “Tiger 24” also offers thoughtful snapshot of where conservation is today and leaves it to the audience to chew over where it should go next.