By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 11 April 2021)
My Octopus
Teacher is a spine-tingling story that is forecast to win an Oscar at this year’s
Academy Awards in the Documentary category.
The first
film I have ever seen earn a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the
cinema rating system much like Moody’s for the Wall Street Stock Exchange.
But it isn’t
just critics who are bedazzled by this deeply moving story. Filmed off the coast
of South Africa largely in a turbulent Atlantic Ocean, it’s also ordinary
viewers who watch and then recommend the film to friends and family alike.
It’s a film
that is safe for children and delicate minds to watch because it is not only
beautiful, presenting some of the most exquisite underwater photography
imaginable. It’s also bitter-sweet since it is a kind of love story that, as
most love stories do, ends in tragedy.
But then,
the finale of the film includes redemption of an equally fulfilling kind.
My Octopus
Teacher is all about two characters: Craig Foster, a photographer who was
facing a kind of midlife crisis which gets turned around once he encounters a curious
creature he has never seen before in the sea. It turns out to be an animal
capable of camouflaging itself more ingeniously than a chameleon.
Foster finds
this invertebrate can not only change her color, texture, and size; she can
shape-shift into an infinite number of forms, depending on what is happening in
her environment.
Foster grew
up on the ocean’s coast line, right where the tides and giant waves keep rolling
in at all hours of day and night. A first-class swimmer, he is not at peace
with himself on land. But he tries doing a day job for years. That takes him to
the Kalahari Desert where he meets indigenous people, men who are what he says are
some of the best trackers in the world.
He is in awe
of these scouts who can distinguish between foot tracks left in sand by sundry
creatures, and they will know which one. These bush trackers inspire him to go
back to the place he loves, namely the ocean and try tracking creatures in a
way similar to what they do. That leads him to find one relatively small
octopus, the one that intrigued him that first day.
Committing
himself to watching her respectfully every day until he gains her trust, what might
seem incorrigible about the man is why he would do such a thing with his life?
In fact, Foster doesn’t disclose the nature of his crisis and feeling of
desperation. But he speaks with such humility and even reverence for nature and
the wild, you easily see he was looking for a purpose. And this octopus gave
him what he desired.
In fact, My
Octopus Teacher is something of a love story because Foster dedicates himself
to tracking and visiting her every day in the ocean. He wears no body suit and
only shorts and a small oxygen device. He says that’s because he wants to
understand her environment personally.
Her domain
is a thick green kelp forest filled with an abundance of fellow sea creatures,
both predators and prey. Because he eventually gains the octopus’s trust, he is
able to witness her everyday life in the wild which is still pristine clean and
clear.
The moment she
actually allows herself to touch his hand is breath-taking. Maybe not everyone
will feel this way. But Foster together with a brilliant co-cinematographer Roger
Horrocks and sensitive sound man Kevin Smuts, build up such a beautifully emotive backdrop
to her dropping her defenses that one cannot help but be moved by that delicate
moment.
But their
bonding doesn’t change the predator nature of Pajama Sharks, the fish most
threatening to the octopus’s life. Foster admits he would’ve wanted to step in
and save her from that sneaky stalker. But he soon discovers she can take care
of herself. And this is where we see her shape-shifting as only a spineless,
soft-skinned being can move.
I won’t give
away how the romance between Foster and his ‘Teacher’ ends. But we the audience
can’t help feeling that we have been taught many things by this film. First and
foremost is the true beauty of an unpolluted terrain. We also see the
incredible allure of the underwater world. Foster says it feels like flying
once you catch the rhythm of that world.
In the end,
Foster is able to share his joy of the sea with his son, and that’s his ultimate
redemption.
My Octopus
Teacher is on Netflix.
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