An interational sensation immortalized by the hymn-to liberty-song BORN FREE with the great voice of Matt Monro, a film that won 2 Oscars (for best original score and title song).
The movie was a massive box office smash all over the world, being based on the novel BORN FREE, written in 1960 by the female author Joy Edamson who told a real story about the life of Elsa, the Lioness. Joy was a pianist, pharmacist, painter and sculptor from Silesia -born Friederike Victoria Gessner (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Adamson).
In 1944, she married the Irish-English wildlife conservationist, game warden and author George Alexander Graham Adamson -a former safari hunter- and they lived in Kenya, near the borders with Somalia: they separated in 1970 but Jοy was murdered in 1980 and George who was murdered by poachers in 1989 (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamson).
The book BORN FREE was followed by ELSA, THE STORY OF A LIONESS and LIVING FREE (1961) and FOREVER FREE (1963) which was made into film under the title LIVING FREE in 1972 (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Free#External_links).
Joy's husband, George Adamson served as chief technical advisor on the film and he narrates his experiences in 2 autobiographies called BWANA GAME (known in the US as A LIFETIME WITH LIONS, 1968) and MY PRIDE AND JOY (1987).
The script of BORN FREE was written by the Jewish American -of Polish descent- actor and screenwriter Lester Cole under the name Gerlad L.C. Copley (who replaced the American writer and producer Tom McGowan who had previously worked at Walt Disney Company). Cole was a Communist and was blacklisted in 1947 during the McCarthy "Red Scare" era. Since then, he also used the names Lewis Copley and J. Redmond Prior). See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Cole .
The film was produced by a close collaborator of Cole, the American agent, producer, studio executive and art collector Sam Jaffe (of Jewish-Russian descent) & the American advertiser, writer, director and producer Paul B. Radin who collaborated with Sam Jaffe as a talent agent.
BORN FREE was directed by the British screenwriter, producer and director James Hill who also directed the film THE LIONS ARE FREE in 1967 (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hill_(British_director) ).
Music by the famous Irish-Engish composer and conductor John Barry.
THE MOVIE WAS FILMED almost entirely in Kenya, some locations in Ethiopia and the Spepperton Studios in England.
For more info, see
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060182/
According to the reviews: "BORN FREE has a simple and beautiful story about man's responsibility to the other creatures that inhabit this earth", "the respect that wildlife deserves from us humans but the most fundamental reality of survival on this planet. This lesson in survival applies to humans as well as other species", "This is a movie about the sanctity of wild life and the triumphing over the impossible which shows how human love for God's other creatures can cause them to sometimes think more with their hearts then with their brains", "Until the publication of the Adamson Born Free trilogy of books, lions, and most wild animals, were considered in the human consciousness in one way - dangerous. This franchise of books and movies, most especially the widely viewed Born Free film, changed all of that throughout the entire world", "When you watch this film, you understand the true meaning of freedom" and, finally "Read the book - it's better"!
For other hidden meanings of the film, see
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2861528/?ref_=tt_urv