Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #289: March of the Penguins (2005).

 

In deepest, coldest Antarctica, flocks of penguins live, breed and co-exist with each other and a rapidly changing world. French documentary filmmaker Luc Jacquet seeks to show how this way of life is not so very different from humanity's in his 2005 film March of the Penguins, which became a surprise, but deserving, mainstream hit.

It follows one flock of these flightless Arctic birds over one year in their lives together, as they all find a mate, breed, hunt for the winter and slowly but stoically complete the titular march around their home, with Morgan Freeman, Amitabh Bachchan, Charles Berling, Jules Sitruk, Sharon Cuneta and (in the version I saw) Maryanne Slavin all narrating their collective odyssey. This is an almost punishingly slow doco, but it nonetheless captivated me the entire way because of how wise, insightful and patient it is. Jacquet, who later made the 2018 sequel March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step, clearly loves these creatures to the point of empathising with them, and in his direction and writing he never judges or even tries to explicitly explain any of their behaviours; instead the narration as it's written simply explains why they're behaving as they are in each situation, and very helpfully, how females and males behave differently to each other. That approach also serves to emphasise the film's main message: that penguins feel the same emotions and have the same values as humans. Values like connection, identity, camaraderie, romance, family. Jacquet also touches extensively on how they breed and then how their chicks come of age in their wilderness environment, fighting against all the dangers (man-made or otherwise) inherent in that.

March of the Penguins is less emotional and polemical, and far less aggressive than Blackfish (2013), and again it's very slow, but if you have the patience for it, like I did, you should find it to be a very illuminating, subtly sweet, impartially political, educational, slow-burning beauty. Oh, and did I mention it won the 2005 Best Documentary Feature Oscar, and that Jacquet and his co-producer Yves Darondeau brought plush penguins to the Academy Awards with them?