Taiwan Docs

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Orangutans, native to Malaysia and Indonesia, are the “Man of the Woods”, as its name suggests in Malay. But since the 1980’s, Taiwanese merchants have smuggled the furry great apes to Taiwan only to sell them as domesticated pets. These Taiwanese have been deemed as the wildlife killers.

But as pet orangutans grow, their appetites increase, their forms enlarge, as does the threat they pose to their owners. The once cute-and-cuddly apes become tall, dangerous and ugly monsters that are feared and abandoned. Research institutes have been working to rescue them and training them to eventual release back into the wild. Can the apes once again swing in the paradise they seem to have lost?

Source: 2010 Taiwan Int'l Documentary Festival, festival catalog