My Octopus Teacher: Enlightenment in the Cape of Storms! – Editorial

The legendary John Muir once said: “When one tug at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” It dawned upon a young Craig Foster that an indescribable emotion was tugging on his heartstrings when he was in the middle of the semi-arid Central Kalahari in Southern Africa. While getting up close and personal with the life of Bushmen and their tracking skills, for a documentary, it dawned upon him that something was amiss in his life: Nature.

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He discovers that what would look like sheer madness for an untrained eye is, in fact, the way of life of the Bushmen for ages. Their bare sight deciphered patterns, signs, and puzzles thrown at them by nature sans the help of any technological interventions. The existence of an extremely complex ability, amongst the tribe, amidst a simplistic lifestyle, in the middle of nowhere, made Craig Foster sit down and question his existence. Somewhere along the line, he discovered that, unlike the Bushmen whose lives were intertwined with their habitat, he is an outsider to the incredible world of nature.

A scorched, jaded, and tumultuous soul questions the purpose in his life, doubts whether he indeed is a good father, and resolves to change for the better. Craig Foster comes back to the southern tip of Africa where he spent his salad days, bids adieu to his camera and edit suite, and decides to turn things around. Drawing inspiration from his childhood and the men of the Kalahari Desert, he jumps headlong into the icy cold waters of the Cape of Storm in the South African coast and rediscovers what he left behind decades ago: a kaleidoscopic forest underwater!

As he swims, without a wet suit and a scuba device, through the overgrown, pirouetting forests of deep-brown seaweeds underwater, appreciating the diversity of creatures big and small, he stumbles across something unusually wonderful which would later make him realize the real purpose of his life, altering his perspectives upside down forever. The first encounter between the man and the animal, backed up by terrific orchestral music in the background, is astounding! And this is where the rubber hits the road in My Octopus Teacher.

Right from the first dramatic encounter, what transpires on screen is an intensely poignant story of love and bonding between a human and a mollusk: an unlikely pair given the distance between them in the evolutionary tree of life. The former is a highly evolved being ruling the world with unmatched cerebral capabilities but the latter is confined to the depths of the deep blue seas warped by a supplementary layer of mystery.

The shape-shifting three-hearted wonder, which strolls with two legs and swims with six arms, casts a spell on the human, prompting the latter to dive into the Atlantic over a period exceeding 300 days to discover more about this enigma! What looks like a historic relic on display at a museum exhibition when still, transforms into a moving wonder when it struts, on the ocean floor, with all the elegance of an affluent Victorian woman clothed in a sophisticated hoop skirt!

Venturing out when safe, in multitudinous shapes and colors, through the pajama shark-infested waters for survival, we discover how this lowly but intelligent animal improvises to catch its prey, innovates to outmaneuver its predator, fine-tunes to breed and sacrifice itself, in the end, to keep its line of succession alive!!

As the clever man-child, whose ilk rule the earth with arrogance draws indispensable lessons from a brilliant and humble being without any bones, we witness an age-old adage take shape: “Nature is the greatest teacher!” Craig Foster emerges out of the azure seas, post this exhilarating encounter, a changed man, who doubles as his son’s keeper and with a newfound appreciation for the subtleties in nature. He didn’t have to tug at nature, as John Muir said, to discover that everything in nature is interconnected.

Swimming against the tide, literally and metaphorically, he just had to dive into the Kelp forest to discover himself, his routes, and nature! My Octopus Teacher drives home the message of E.F. Schumacher that small is beautiful, without getting preachy. Next time if you encounter this shape-shifting wonder in a mythic tale or on the menu of a restaurant in a distant land, you will spare a thought for its plight: misunderstood and misappropriated.

Unfolding from Craig Foster’s perspective and narrated by him; My Octopus Teacher shatters many preconceived opinions about a lesser-known animal remarkably well. The sights and sounds in the Kelp Forest ecosystem, one of the most productive marine regions, populated by exotic and strange animals, are stranger than fiction. You cannot help but admire the fact, with a tinge of jealousy, that the narrator dived every day into a Technicolor movie alive and kicking with life.

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No wonder why he started the Sea Change Project later: to protect the Great African Seaforest! As the documentary, which comes loaded with all the trappings of a star-crossed love story, unfolds in front of us, the unspoken message hits us spontaneously: The noble obligation to preserve nature so that the future generations can savor the full fruits of our labor of love! Watch ‘My Octopus Teacher’ on Netflix here.

Written by @climbing_equator

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