Directors of “The Last Lions” Derreck and Beverely Joubert speak with associate arts and entertainment editor Chase Wade Friday morning at the Hotel Palomar. (MICHAEL DANSER/The Daily Campus)

Deep within the plains of Duba, Africa, Beverly and Dereck Joubert stand still with their cameras in hand, waiting for the latest drama to unfold between Duba’s fragile lion habitat.

The married couple, who has been shooting lions for the past 28 years, has just completed a new National Geographic documentary entitled, “The Last Lions,” an epic feature that focuses on a widowed lioness and the struggle she encounters to keep herself and her three cubs alive.

“We’ve always wanted to tell these stories on a larger screen,” Dereck said. “Africa is a huge country and its has not been seen like this in a very long time.”

The story revolves around Ma di Tau, whose name translates to “Mother of the Lions,” and her journey to safety after being forced out of her regular habitat by another pride of lions.

The Jouberts’ documentary makes an obvious point to characterize the lions. The couple’s filming style utilizes the transition from big, broad, strokes to just a frame of the lion’s eyes to draw emotion from both the audience and the lions.

“At one point in the film, you start forgetting that Ma di Tau is a lioness and you start to look at her as a person,” Beverly said.

To capture the events that unfold, Dereck and Beverly live their lives out of tents, and are prone to working 18-hour workdays in less than ideal conditions.

“We are working in a place that it is very easy to die in,” Beverly said. “We never will have to pick up an extreme sport, we get our adrenaline from our jobs.”

One of the more dangerous aspects of their jobs arise when they are forced to cross swelled rivers to reach the lions they are filming for the day.

“One time, we found ourselves stuck in the middle of a river that we shot a couple days ago that had humongous crocodiles in it,” Dereck said. “I have to be honest, when I went to pull the car out, I was not entirely comfortable with the things I felt moving around my ankles.”

The film does not restrain from the harshness that is the animal kingdom. With some scenes so intense that they make movies like “Taxi Driver,” look like a children’s movie, “The Last Lions,” is more than thrilling to watch.

“A lot of times, to get the shot we desire, we have to act like a predator,” Dereck said. “We’ll just patiently sit waiting for something to happen, you never know when something like a fight will break out.”

Having witnessed a countless number of fights between lions, the Jouberts’ have seen over 3,000 kills in their lifetime. In this movie’s case, losing a lion could mean losing their main character.

“The animal kingdom is very unpredictable,” Beverly said. “Every morning, we were faced with the situation that our movie’s focus could be dead. We are constantly out heels, ready for anything that could be thrown our way.”

Spending so many hours observing these animals, the Jouberts sometimes tend to form emotional connections with their subjects. “The Last Lions” was no exception.

“There is a great emotional investment in these chracters.” Beverly said. “We pretty much get into the same rhythm as the animals. The emotions we are feeling for the day are truly the emotions depicted in the film.”

At times, the emotional capacity took its toll.

“There would days where we would come back from filming, and emotionally, we were just exhausted,” Beverly said. “We lose lions all the time, but in this film, losing a lion was like losing part of our family.”

At times in “The Last Lions,” the film exhibits the strong will that Ma di Tau possesses just to stay alive. The movie demonstrates the incredible lengths a mother will go to keep her young safe and nourished.

“Today, we have so much assistance in every way possible,” Dereck said. “The film really makes you start to wonder if you could survive in just a tooth and claw world.”

“The Last Lions,” is part of National Geographic’s “Big Cat Initiative,” a global program that has a goal of protecting the dwindling lion population.

“We need a shift in the way we view lions,” Dereck said. “We can’t keep shooting the males and hanging them on our walls. If this continues, our children’s children might not even get to know what a lion is.”

“The Last Lions” opens in theatres Feb. 18. Even though the film is marked as a documentary, it holds all of the drama and intensity of any studio-shot feature as well. With a captivating story that never once gets old, “The Last Lions” is a must see for moviegoers.

“So many people have been cut off from nature,” Beverly said. “So if I can just draw them into the African wild for just 92 minutes, and make them realize how precious these animals are, then I have succeeded at my job.”