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Mother of Buffalo

Sponsored Project

  • Luis Arturo Tapia, Director
  • Yanyu Chen, Producer
A title card from Mother of Buffalo: on an overcast beach at low tide, a person in jeans and grey rubber boots stands beside a resting water buffalo, one hand laid gently on its head. The film's title is rendered across the lower third in a white hand-painted brush script.

About the Project

Mother of Buffalo is a documentary film following one woman’s daily, years-long struggle to protect a dwindling population of free roaming water buffalo on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island.

Every day for 18 years, Jean Leung has looked after her beloved buffalo
children. But time is running out and this may be the final generation.
Jean’s lone mission is to ensure their future. She faces strong and growing
headwinds: a government sterilization campaign and unchecked development of their once-protected habitat place the buffalo in a precarious situation. Yet
the buffalo, and hope, remain. Jean has vowed to fight to the end.

It’s a story of perseverance, of the connection and conflict between
humans and nature, and of a rarely-seen side of Hong Kong amidst transformative change.