My Octopus Teacher

My Octopus Teacher outshines all other natural-science documentaries. Even if it were merely an undersea documentary about an octopus and a person’s friendship with it, it would stand out due to the variety of situations experienced throughout the film and its unique educational value. Thanks to the filmmaker’s good-heartedness and sincerity, the viewer is not just told and shown the facts, but becomes a co-discoverer of them. However, My Octopus Teacher is something much more in its emotional impact, thematic complexity and interconnectedness with the life of the documentarian. If Alex Honnold could take the last Oscar for best documentary due to the strength of the human spirit in climbing, now that honor should go to Craig Foster for his depiction of the fragile relationship between two extremely different species and his poetic description of the unifying parallels of their life journeys. (10/27/2020)

When I recently watched the series Animals, it was the Octopus that intrigued me the most, hiding many secrets under their omnivorous tentacles. My Octopus Teacher doesn't rely on its visual sophistication, as is often the case with animal documentaries, but tries to engage with content instead of form. We follow two life journeys – human and cephalopod – where the latter takes on a very fatal quality given that the lifespan of octopuses is not very long. At times, I did feel that Craig Foster was pushing his feelings too hard and projecting his disposition too "violently" onto his eight-headed "buddy", but on the other hand, you cannot deny his genuine passion for what he does. Octopuses are truly admirable creatures – be it their intelligence, their wit, their mimicry, the way they hunt, or their fatal dedication to their offspring. (11/26/2022)

An emotional, succinct and colourful insight into the lives of an octopus and a marine explorer who become close to each other and form a relationship like no one has ever managed before. It’s a shame that they didn't give us a quick five-minute general overview about octopuses so we know roughly what to expect from them and some basic characteristics, but otherwise this is without question an unbeatable film within the underwater (sub)genre and I applaud it accordingly. Perfect and precise work to balance the spectacle and the documentary depiction of the relationship between man and octopus like this, yet lay it down in a watchable 80-minute format with footage that I have no idea how they could have captured, as it is simply breathtaking and insane. We learn about the workings of the ecosystem "on the bottom", the habits of the main creature, its method of hunting, camouflage from predators and its gradual establishment of contact with humans, and most of all I was blown away by the camouflage, where it packed dead crustaceans and corals onto its suction cups and made itself look like a rock. I don't purposely seek out this kind of genre, but this one blew me away and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see an underwater gem like this. Breathtaking. (01/18/2023)

Okay, I suspected I might fall into the category of individuals who could theoretically be moved to tears by the life story of an octopus, but I'm still surprised at how much I've come to relate to it. A beautifully filmed, perfectly wonderful story. The underwater world is absolutely fascinating and humanity still knows so little about it. One of the most beautiful and moving documentaries I've ever seen. (11/30/2020)

I never thought I’d find myself emotionally attached to an octopus, but this documentary made it happen. It’s incredible. I still don’t understand how Craig Foster managed to capture the entire story so perfectly—how he was there with a camera for all the key moments, how he could even breathe and stay underwater for so long. It felt like he had gills, like he’d become one with the kelp forest. This film has such a powerful message, and the ending is probably one of the most emotional I’ve ever seen in a nature documentary. (01/11/2021)