Craig Foster

(Netflix Streaming, October 2021) As a blend between nature documentary and self-discovery narrative, My Octopus Teacher often seems too convenient to be true—the story of a man who, at a difficult time in his life, goes swimming in the ocean and develops a friendship with a small octopus. As an excuse to go shooting nature footage in shallow waters, it’s unparalleled. The result is quite nice—even knowing that we’re watching a re-creation of the events being told, the colourful footage is striking and the human/octopus interactions are very well done. But it’s in the narrative where My Octopus Teacher outdoes itself—Science Fiction fans will get the frisson of a first-contact story as a human learns to approach and understand an alien intelligence, with occasional setbacks and an inevitably sad ending. While writer-producer-star Craig Foster remains vague over the personal issues he was trying to escape or overcome when he started diving, that leaves the focus of the film on his interaction with his octopus, the way he learns to think like one and the quirks of an octopus’s psychology. The footage, shot over many years following the narrative being told, ably illustrates the story. There’s no denying the intelligence of the octopus, nor the effectiveness in which a narrative overlaid on nature footage makes it even more compelling. You can quibble about some of the emotional manipulation or the particulars of the dramatic recreation, but I find it hard to imagine that anyone save for hard-core cephalophobes would hate My Octopus Teacher: the film is designed to make octopi cute and relatable, and Foster does make for a very likable host as well. The subject matter still manages to be memorable in a growing ocean of nature documentaries, and the way it’s put together is uncommonly effective. No wonder the film walked away with a Best Documentary Academy Award.