Zarafa, released in France on Feb 8th, is an animated feature film from filmaker Remi Bexancon and animator Jean-Christophe Lie. Lie is most known from award winning features such as Triplets of Belleville, Disney’s Tarzan, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Kirikou and the Wild Beasts and Nocturna.

“Under a baobab tree, an old man tells a story to the children around him: the story of the everlasting friendship between Maki, a little boy aged 10, and Zarafa, an orphaned giraffe, a gift from the Pasha of Egypt to th King of France, Charles X. Hassan, Prince of the Desert, is instructed by the Pasha to deliver Zarafa to France. But Maki has made up his mind to do everything in his power to stop Hassan from fulfilling his mission and to bring the giraffe back to its native land – even if it means risking his own life – because he must fulfill his promise to Zarafa’s late mother. During an epic journey that takes them from Sudan to Paris, passing on the way through Alexandria, Marseille and the snow-capped Alps, they have many adventures, crossing paths with the aviator Malaterre, a pair of unusual twin cows called Mounh and Sounh, and the pirate queen Bouboulina.”