The movie ‘My Octopus Teacher’ revolves around the strange friendship between an octopus man and man. The work received a nomination for Best Documentary Film at Oscar 2021.
What is octopus?
To answer this question, perhaps most of the public will think of a delicious, popular seafood, or at most remember the octopus Paul, who once attracted the world’s attention thanks to his “predictions. “Exactly about the 2010 World Cup matches.
For those reading Wikipedia “addicted” or good students in Biology, maybe the answer will have more about the superior intelligence of molluscs if compared with other inhabitants of the ocean kingdom. . These are the easy answers, for we naturally consider only the “common” octopus (common octopus or octopus vulgaris) to be an animal, nothing more, no less.
But for South African filmmaker Craig Foster, such a “common” octopus is not an animal, much less delicious food. That creature is the middle-aged man’s “teacher” about nature, life, and is also the main character of the excellent documentary. My Octopus Teacher (My octopus teacher).
Friendship between humans and octopus
Crafted by directors Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed for Netflix based on documentary footage of Craig Foster’s strange and amusing meeting with the octopus at the end of the black continent bordering the Atlantic. Cape of Storms, My Octopus Teacher recounts the seemingly impossible friendship between a man who has gone through all stages of his life with a seemingly inanimate octopus.
Craig Foster is not a dreamer with the ability to find soul in every creature in the world. On the contrary, he is a filmmaker tired of the events of his life, feeling helpless in communicating with even those he loves most, like his son Tom.
Filmmaker Craig Foster.
Therefore, Foster decided to give up the camera to go back to his homeland at Storm Cape alone, where he could enjoy himself in solitude amid the beautiful and mysterious kelp forest. contact people, not think about life.
It was in the underwater forest that he met an octopus, who had no name, no voice, but showed incredible intelligence in hunting or camouflage to avoid the pijama sharks who were always prowling in the darkness of the ocean. . Out of curiosity, Foster began to really pay attention to learn, only to realize that the “animal” has much closer to the lonely man in the cold southern water.
From here, Craig Foster tried to build a “friendship”, a seemingly impossible emotional chain with that unnamed and voiceless octopus. Throughout My Octopus Teacher, viewers can see many different moments of that friendship, from nervousness, sadness, to happiness, anxiety, and at the same time feel the maturity, toughness of the emotional rope between the two sides. .
In the end, all will have to admit that the friendship between man and the seemingly small, dark octopus is not impossible.
The film’s sincerity
If you have to pack it up My Octopus Teacher In a word, perhaps it is sincerity. In each movie describing the wonderful nature of South Africa in general and kelp forest in particular, or in Craig Foster’s words for her octopus or for the vast ocean world, viewers can feel sincere feelings.
It is the feeling that filmmakers and movie characters like Foster, like his son Tom, for her octopus and the natural world. Honesty and sincerity are of course the required qualities of a good documentary film.
The film is about the heartfelt friendship between Craig Foster and an unnamed octopus.
But the careful, meticulousness of Craig Foster and his colleagues to describe the most accurate, clearest, easiest to grasp the diversity and depth of life in the ocean has helped the audience understand. out a truth. That man is just a part of the big world with a real connection that always exists and waits to be unearthed, as the way Foster realized his feelings for the “octopus teacher” .
Perhaps for many viewers, the name “My octopus teacher” will bring many doubts because of the stereotype “octopus is just an animal” due to the lack of contact with nature in a natural way. . But Craig Foster, and My Octopus Teacher, will quickly resolve that skepticism thanks to excellent footage of a strange world at the end of the world.
On the ocean floor, in the shadow of the giant kelp trees, viewers will find a feeling of sedimentation. Seeing the way the octopus took the tentacle and touched Foster’s hard but trembling hand, many fathers and mothers will surely remember the moment they saw their baby born, holding the table. the small, fragile hand of a being who still could not speak, but already had a seed of affection within him.
Foster’s troubled gaze when talking about the dangerous moments – which filled the short life of an octopus in the raging ocean – perhaps reminded many viewers of the anxiety and restlessness they had. for your loved one in the stormy turns of life.
My Octopus Teacher there are many moments like that for the audience to feel the real friendship between Foster and the octopus teacher.
Humans are only part of the Earth
In the context of modern society gradually taking over the wild, people destroy natural life at a dizzying speed and then have to face the consequences of their own cause, many filmmakers have been try to call for human conscience in preserving nature, preserving the precious remaining life resources on Earth.
Usually, directors will choose to speak face to face, outlining the dire consequences that humanity will suffer as in An Inconvenient Truth (2006) by David Guggenheim, or specifying a variety of breathtaking yet fragile beauty, in need of the protection of the Earth as in Our Planet led by legendary David Attenborough.
Humans are, after all, only part of the Earth.
Also a beautiful work of nature, but My Octopus Teacher choose another way of giving your message. Through a seemingly rare encounter between Craig Foster and his octopus teacher, the film simply tells us that we – modern humans – are just inhabitants of a vast world on Earth. . There are many other residents here, with different destinies, different ways of life, different behaviors.
Only efforts to protect the environment, with a real desire to come to nature, to return to nature, can humanity have the opportunity to truly get acquainted, experience precious emotions like Foster in almost one. His octopus teacher track year.
From a beautiful lifestyle, people can find opportunities to make their life less lonely, to see life more beautiful, worth living, like how Craig Foster nurtured feelings for his son through feelings. The inspiration was obtained from the sea, from the octopus teacher.
You must log in to post a comment.