My Octopus Teacher

The most surprising documentary in my life. It's been a few days since I saw the film and I still have that warm feeling it evoked in me. I’m recommending it to everyone. An incredible caress to the soul. The last time I was this moved was maybe in 2011 with Intouchables. I’ve always loved octopi... on a plate, but now I can’t imagine myself eating one ever again! For the first time in my life I'm thinking about vegetarianism, and so far no film has managed to do that – even videos from slaughterhouses or factory farms have failed to have any effect on me, and yet this film doesn't even push the idea that eating animals is wrong. How is it possible? Because this documentary has a heart, it doesn't offer much in terms of science, just heart, love and respect for animals and nature. For me, just wow! (04/21/2021)

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)

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 don’t care at all its shortcomings as a documentary (i.e. sweet sentimentality), the only type of person who can not like this is someone whose heart was stolen in grade school and never got it back. Unprecedented, beautifully shot and proving that the connection of ugly people with beautiful nature is possible. (01/15/2021)

This is a fragile and completely unique documentary about an unexpected friendship between a curious cephalopod and a burnt-out filmmaker who spent most of his life with him while daily diving. The film is an original, emotional and sometimes thrilling connection between the world of people and the world of animals, finding unifying parallels in the lives of both protagonists and casually encouraging understanding of nature from a completely different point of view. (01/04/2021)

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. (01/17/2023)

An immensely sensitively filmed documentary that, against the backdrop of an almost intimate relationship between a person with their heart in the right place and an incredibly intelligent octopus, brings to the lay public the secrets and beauties of the kelp forest world off the shores of South Africa. I fell in love with the octopus in the opening minutes and, accompanied by a commentary led by Craig Foster's voice and pleasant music, I couldn't get enough of the images from her harrowing life journey until the very moving end. I think Craig Foster deserves respect and reverence for his boundless love of nature, which he leads his son to share. (100%) (04/01/2021)