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My Octopus Teacher Movie Review

My Octopus Teacher is a 2020 Netflix documentary film directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed and starring Craig Foster. It’s a beautiful, touching movie.

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“What she taught me was to feel…

that you’re part of this place, not a visitor.

That’s a huge difference“

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South African filmmaker Craig Foster burned out on his work and begins diving solo near Cape Town. There, he befriends a female common octopus and the two forge a strange friendship that will impact Foster so much and change his life forever. First and foremost, I am a big snorkeling fan, I love the underwater world and I am a big proponent of animal awareness, so this movie was literally made for me.

Although I had known quite a bit about octopuses before, I did not know everything, and this film taught me so much about their lifestyle, thus fulfilling the most important goal of any documentary – being informative. Their extreme intelligence was showcased here in a couple of truly incredible feats of prowess where she escaped a shark in increasingly more elaborate ways. Her landing on the shark’s back as well as leaving the water were the most astonishing moments in the film.

Eventually, the octopus died. Apparently, mothers put so much energy into taking care of the eggs before they hatch that they end up dying in the process. That scene proved to be incredibly sad that it almost made me cry. Yes, Foster was rather manipulative emotionally speaking, but overall I did not mind it as much because the fact of the matter is that all life is super short and fleeting, especially animal life, and his willingness to portray both the good and the bad needs to be respected. Life for animals is one filled with constant fear and hiding, which the documentary depicts in brutal honesty.

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One thing bothered me here and that is Foster’s insistence that he should never intervene and he never once helped the poor octopus. Although most biologists agree that you should never interact with animals one way or the other so as not to disrupt the circle of life, I still felt that if he had formed a connection with this creature that he should have helped her throughout. The only flaw of the movie is Foster’s problematic morality, but that is debatable and anyone can agree or disagree depending on the person.

My Octopus Teacher excels the most in its visuals. The score is great, but the filming was excellent and some of the shots here are gorgeous, especially of the kelp forest, which truly looks otherworldly. Foster reaffirms how we really shouldn’t be wanting to go to other planets when we have an entire bizarre, different world on our very own planet – and that is the underwater world. Everything here operates differently, which the camera captured effectively.

Seeing the whole ecosystem with other animals was wonderful. The film is quite short and it flies by how riveting it is. The soothing rhythm of the ocean and the eerie, yet beautiful calmness of it is beautifully captured on the screen, and hopefully the film will inspire animal conservation in the future as it really has that potential.

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I did not find it anthropomorphizing all that much, but it felt just a bit manipulative in its second half. The first half is better, but the ending of the movie itself genuinely crushed me and it captured the harsh reality of nature with such palpable force. It’s a very emotional viewing experience and one that sheds the necessary light on animal intelligence that can be found in the strangest of places.