(Re)discover “The Wisdom of the Octopus”, a fascinating and moving documentary about the friendship between a snorkeler and an octopus, on the South African coast.
In 2010, worn out by long years of overwork, documentary filmmaker Craig Foster decided to leave to rebuild his life at the source, on the tip of South Africa where he spent his childhood. There, in a unique place called Cape of Storms, he took up snorkeling and decided to explore a kelp forest off the African coast. As he scrutinizes this extraordinary environment for the first time, he is far from imagining that he is about to have one of the most incredible encounters of his life.
Indeed, during his dives, he befriended an octopus, and for a whole year, shared the daily life of this extraordinary animal, gradually discovering its intelligence, its sensitivity, its complexity, but also the many dangers that await her.
“For many people, the octopus is an alien. But strangely enough, the closer you get to it, the more you realize that it looks a lot like us. It’s a totally different world. It’s an incredible feeling. We feel that something fabulous is going to happen. But there is a limit that should not be crossed.”
It is with these few words that The Wisdom of the Octopus begins. Told in the first person by Craig Foster, who describes to us without concealing the slightest detail the unique experience he lived, this documentary is a story of reconnection, of renewal, of inner restoration.
Just as an octopus amputated with a tentacle is able to see it grow back some time later, Foster, in contact with this singular friend, gradually witnesses the regeneration of his tired soul.
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Before living this exceptional experience, the documentary filmmaker was indeed coming out of a particularly trying period:
“I lived a real hell for two years”he says at the beginning of the film. “I had worked hard for years, until I was exhausted. I had been sleeping badly for months. My family was suffering from it. (…) That had to change.”
As incredible as it may seem when you haven’t seen the film yet, this unexpected meeting, as Foster describes it himself, literally turned his life upside down, and even allowed him to re-establish a real relationship with his young son.
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Following its narrator, this feature film produced by Netflix and awarded the Oscar for best documentary in 2021 therefore offers us an astonishing, tender and beautiful journey, but also ruthless and sometimes overwhelming, as you can see. during the movie.
Considered by AlloCiné internet users as the 25th best documentary of all time, it has an excellent average of 4.353 stars out of 5, and is also one of the 7 best Netflix Originals films.
So forget, for an hour and 25 minutes, the sprawling creature from 20,000 leagues under the sea or the monstrous kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean. Forget everything that the cinema has told you about this special animal, and let yourself be tamed by The Wisdom of the Octopus.
(Re)discover the trailer for the film…