My Octopus Teacher (2020) Movie Review

I’ll be honest, when I first heard about My Octopus Teacher I was a tad weirded out. It seemed like a documentary about this strange man who developed a creepy love story with an octopus. I put off watching it, and then when it got nominated for Best Documentary at the 93rd annual Academy Awards I resigned to sit down and force myself to check it out. I was SO GLAD I did.

Craig Foster is a South African filmmaker and the protagonist, if you will, of My Octopus Teacher. At the beginning of the film Foster recounts his struggles with mental health. He had become overworked and stressed and couldn’t be a good father or husband. His work began suffering and he felt disconnected and morose. To try to shake himself out of his funk, Foster revisited his childhood pastime of diving in the ocean. He began diving near a kelp forest not far from where he lived. The cold water and being immersed in nature began to help his moods. That’s when he first swam across the octopus. All of a sudden, his curiosity is sparked. He begins to go back every day to dive and to visit his octopus friend.

What really struck me about this film is the beauty that is captured in every single shot. Filming underwater is extremely difficult and somewhat more dangerous than filming on dry land. What Foster and his team are able to accomplish is to really capture the other worldly element of being underwater and the beauty that is brimming just below the surface of the waves. Watching Foster swim amidst giant stalks of kelp with fish and all manner of plant life surrounding him, truly made you feel as if you’d been transported to another planet. The beauty is inescapable as you see a myriad of colors and creatures in their natural habitat.

Amidst all this beauty and activity, you witness a funky looking creature who only lives for about a year. The octopus. I’ve long had a fascination with octopuses because they are such unique cephalopods. They don’t have a shell and have been forced to adapt and become creative to avoid predators. The main predator in this film is the pajama shark and Foster is able to capture several instances with the pajama sharks hunting (and attacking) the octopus. The footage of the octopus avoiding predators was particularly interesting. Octopuses can change color to blend in with any environment, they can grow horns on their heads, and they use shells and other ocean debris to hide under and avoid detection. It was fascinating to see all of these methods of deception in action as the octopus evades the pajama sharks and protects herself.

My Octopus Teacher suffers a bit from anthropomorphism, but for me it didn’t lessen the impact of the message. Foster often speculates on what the octopus is thinking or feeling. He wonders aloud if she dreams and what she might dream about. He places a lot of emphasis on her interactions with him, particularly the times they have physical contact which is always initiated by her. This didn’t bother me all that much. Some have labelled it as a bit much or even slightly obsessive and creepy. But I found it to be similar to my own experiences with animals. It’s merely a feeling that you get when you’re with them that you have a connection and that you understand each other on some level. If this was a dog, a cat, or even a non-domesticated animal like a lion or a tiger, people would most likely not have as big of an issue with it. (There’s a reason it’s called My Octopus Teacher rather than something else.)

The issue here for most people is, octopuses are weird and kind of creepy looking. But they are incredibly and fascinatingly smart so it isn’t outside of the realm of possibility that this octopus could have been, at the very least, curious about her frequent human visitor. Perhaps Foster assigns too much meaning to his friendship with the octopus. But the beautiful message of the movie outweighs the small negative bits. Foster found peace and clarity by immersing himself in nature each day. He found a purpose and was able to experience an entire ecosystem and watch as it ebbed and flowed from one day to the next.

He befriended an octopus and visited her each day until her time on this earth came to an end. He studied her behaviors, watched her grow and adapt, and witnessed a large portion of her life. And somewhere along the way he discovered that he loved her. Is it possible Foster assigned too much meaning to an actually meaningless set of interactions with an animal in nature? Yes, I suppose it is possible. But at one point Foster is describing his time with the octopus and says, “An unimaginable life.” If nothing else, My Octopus Teacher takes the unimaginable life of an octopus and makes it relatable and beautiful. By the end of the movie, you might just fall in love with the octopus too. And if not, you’ll at the very least fall in love with how absolutely beautiful life can be if only we stop to enjoy it.

Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You’re an animal lover
2. You like marine life
3. You enjoy admiring the beauty of planet Earth