''My Octopus Teacher'' is a 2020

Netflix Original Netflix is an American global Internet streaming-on-demand media provider that has distributed a number of original streaming television shows, including original series, specials, miniseries, documentaries and films. Netflix's original produ ...

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed. It documents a year spent by filmmaker

Craig Foster use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , nationality = , other_names = , siglum = , citizenship = , education = , al ...

forging a relationship with a wild

common octopus The common octopus (''Octopus vulgaris'') is a Mollusca, mollusk belonging to the class Cephalopoda. ''Octopus vulgaris'' is one of the most studied of all octopus species, and also one of the most intelligent. It ranges from the eastern Atlanti ...

in a South African

kelp forest Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on E ...

. The film won Best Documentary Feature at the

93rd Academy Awards The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 2021 ...

Synopsis

In 2018, Craig Foster began

free-diving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on apnea, breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba set, scuba gear. Besides the ...

in a cold underwater kelp forest at a remote location in

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

, near

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa. The location was near

Simon's Town Simon's Town (), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of Simon's Bay in False Bay, on the eastern s ...

on the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good ...

, which is exposed to the cold

Benguela current The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela Front in the no ...

of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Foster started to document his experiences, and, in time, met a curious young octopus that captured his attention. The film shows Foster's growing intimate relationship with the octopus as he follows her around for nearly a year. They form an individual bond, and she plays with Foster and allows him into her world to see how she sleeps, lives, and eats. She frequently has to defend herself against

pyjama shark The pyjama shark or striped catshark (''Poroderma africanum'') is a species of Scyliorhinidae, catshark, and part of the family (biology), family Scyliorhinidae, endemism, endemic to the coastal waters of South Africa. This abundant, benthic fish ...

s. In one attack, the octopus loses an arm, and she then retreats to her den to recover, slowly regenerating the arm over three months. In a later shark attack, she shows an incredibly improved creativity to survive, including sticking on the shark's back. After mating with a male octopus and producing numerous eggs, she dies naturally while tending to her eggs. Later, a shark scavenges her dead body and carries it off. Foster describes the effect of this mentorship-like relationship the octopus provided him, teaching him a lesson on the fragility of life and humanity's connection with nature. This transfers to Foster creating a deeper bond with his son, Tom, as the boy develops as a diver and marine biology student.

Production

In partnership with The Sea Change Project, Off The Fence, and

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

Enterprises, ''My Octopus Teacher'' was executive produced by Ellen Windemuth. It was directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed. Cinematography was handled by underwater cameraman Roger Horrocks, with additional footage from Craig Foster and Roger Horrocks; some underwater footage, not shown in the film, but filmed by the pair at the same location, had previously been included in Episode 5 of ''

Blue Planet II ''Blue Planet II'' is a 2017 British nature documentary series on marine life produced as a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC America, Tencent, WDR, France Télévisions and CCTV-9 in partnership with The Open Universit ...

'' (2017). Foster was also the film's producer, via his involvement with The Sea Change Project, and his wife, Indian environmental journalist Swati Thiyagarajan, was the production manager. The film, which Foster began filming in 2018, was years in the making, and was the first South African nature documentary to be a Netflix Original.

Reception and legacy

''My Octopus Teacher'' was released for

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 7 September 2020. The film received critical acclaim. On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 93% of 44 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "A heartwarming look at the way a meaningful bond can transcend just about any barrier, this documentary will leave you asking your friends to come and see ''My Octopus Teacher'' with you." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 82% based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The film was spoofed in the 2022 ''

Documentary Now A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill Ni ...

'' episode "My Monkey Grifter".Documentary Now! gets very mean (and very funny) with its take on My Octopus Teacher, A.V. Club
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Accolades

References

External links