Forget about kittens, bunnies and puppies ... even Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppies, which are adorable beyond words.
Even so, nothing on God’s Earth is cuter than a penguin.
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| Everybody in the village is captivated by the Magellanic penguin that has become a constant companion to one of the local fishermen. Young Lucia (Duda Galvão, standing just to the bird's left) names it DinDim. |
Scripters Kristen Lazarian and Paulina Lagudi Ulrich embellished the truth a bit, in order to supply back-story and dramatic heft to what already was an astonishing saga. That’s certainly fair; this is a movie, not a documentary, and the result is heartwarming and totally captivating.
Events begin in the small beach community of Ilha Grande, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. João (Pedro Urizzi) is one of dozens of young men who eke out a living by fishing, rising early each morning to prepare boats and nets. He and his wife, Maria (Amanda Magalhães), have a young son, Miguel (Juan José Garnica); the boy loves soccer and dotes on his father. As a birthday present, he begs to tag along the next morning, to help fish in lieu of attending school.
A storm kicks up; tragedy ensues.
Decades pass. João (now played by Jean Reno) has become a withdrawn misanthrope: broken, barely speaking, shunning the friends and neighbors with whom he once worked alongside, setting up his boat and nets well away from the other aging fishermen. Even Maria (now Adriana Barraza) doesn’t know how to reach him, and her quiet anguish is palpable.
Elsewhere — in Patagonia, Argentina — a colony of Magellanic penguins takes to the water, driven by migration instinct. After an undetermined amount of time, one gets separated from the others ... and, worse yet, blunders into an oil spill and is quickly covered. Now almost unable to swim, it struggles forward.
Back in Ilha Grande, while preparing for another day of fishing, João spots something floating atop the water, just off the beach. He hastens to it, and discovers a penguin in severe distress, covered in oil. João takes it home, calms it with a sardine breakfast, and begins the laborious process of cleaning off the oil.
At first Maria views this newcomer as unwanted vermin, but she sees a change in her husband; he’s renewed by a sense of purpose, and the knowledge that he’s able to help this little creature. It’s still weak and vulnerable; João makes it a tiny sweater from some leftover material.
(If subsequent scenes of this little bird waddling around João and Maria’s home, in its makeshift sweater, isn’t the most endearing thing ever ... well, you have no heart.)
The subtlety of Reno’s performance is almost magical; seeing João slowly come back to life, as the days pass — to once again experience joy — is like watching a flower blossom. But he understands that this little bird is a wild animal, and so — once fully recovered — he prepares his boat, to set it free. A little girl named Lucia (Duda Galvão) spots the penguin, and — totally captivated — names it DinDim.
João rows the bird to a distant island; with a heavy heart — Reno’s expression is shattering — he bids farewell and leaves it behind.
João and Maria are astonished, not much later, to find that DinDim has returned. The bird has imprinted on its human companion, and quickly becomes a sensation in the village. João quickly dismisses one assumption: DinDim is not a pet. “He chooses to be with me.”
As for what happens next ... well, you’ll just have to watch the movie.
The delicacy of what has occurred thus far, and what follows, comes from the clever manner in which João speaks both for himself, and for DinDim: voicing his assumptions regarding his little companion’s thoughts, in tandem with the degree of “emotion” that Schurmann and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle convey via the bird’s head tilts, neck movements, and noisy bleats and squeaks.
You’ll swear, after awhile, that DinDim is actually talking.
The story expands to include three marine biologists — Stephanie (Rocio Hernández), Adriana (Alexia Moyano) and Carlos (Nicolás Francella) — who are studying the Patagonia colony. Thalma de Freitas also stands out, during her brief appearances as Lucia’s mother, Calista; she’s sensitive to what João has been through, and how DinDim has changed his life.
Schurmann eschewed CGI and animation, and instead patiently employed 10 birds, all trained by expert “penguin wrangler” Fabian Gabelli. A bird named Maui aced his training, and is seen in more scenes than any of the others: Big Z, Teodora, Madalena, Capitao, Rosita, Fafa, Homer, Amelia and Alcione. (They all hail from Brazil’s Ubatuba Aquarium, having been rescued and no longer able to survive in the wild.)
Schurmann also cleverly conveys DinDim’s “penguin’s-eye-view,” both on land and while swimming in the ocean, thanks to underwater cinematographer Lucas Gaspar Pupo. The result is quite effective: a circular screen image, its edges somewhat “watery,” as if the lens were coated with petroleum jelly.
Fernando Veláquez’s gentle score perfectly accents and enhances these events.
The actual story is simpler than this film suggests, and some key details remain unknown. A Magellanic penguin was indeed caught in an oil spill in May 2011, and rescued by João Pereira de Souza, a 71-year-old retired mason. He nursed the bird back to health, released it, and was surprised when it returned. And, yes; what happened next is depicted here with reasonable accuracy (absent the three marine biologists).
But that’s the sort of stuff that makes subsequent research so entertaining. Schurmann’s film, meanwhile, is a rare treat: a remarkably accomplished and poignant little gem. Don’t be surprised if you want to watch it a second time.
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