“He is not a pet. He is my friend.” —Actor Jean Reno as João Pereira de Souza, explaining his relationship with his rescued penguin
As another ghoulish Halloween ends, only to be followed by a tense presidential election, nothing soothes an anxious heart like a fisherman who rescues a penguin. My Penguin Friend (not the Batman spinoff called The Penguin) is exactly what the title says: the unexpected friendship between a man and a real live penguin. This particular penguin belongs to the Magellanic species, distinguished by the wide black stripes framing their white torsos. And like all penguins, their body proportions are a mystery: their short arms that swim but don’t fly look like a designer afterthought, while those little webbed feet tucked beneath the torso add a waddle to the walk.
Since the release of numerous documentaries like March of the Penguins, we’ve been acquainted with these adorable creatures who seem comfortable around humans and curious about everything. An outtake of Winged Migration shows them walking right beside the filmmakers to inspect the cameras during the filming of indigenous wildlife in the Arctic.
My Penguin Friend takes us to the gorgeous coastline of Brazil, where this movie was filmed. We flash back to young João, a fisherman, and his wife Maria, and their son, who dies in a boating accident. And then we flash forward to João and Maria, now in their later years. Maria is a woman of few words, while João has become a loner, consumed in grief and guilt. He cannot forgive himself for the death of their son. His pain makes him socially withdrawn from his fishing buddies and from the whole village. The past keeps João from moving forward—until something unexpected happens.
An oil spill near Brazil’s coastal waters changes João’s life. When the oil coats the feathers of a lone penguin and leaves him floating helplessly in the sea, João rescues him, carries him home, warms him with a towel, and feeds him sardines. Then he begins the tedious task of removing the crude oil from his feathers. When Maria comes home, João is caught off guard, childlike, afraid to explain what happened but hoping she won’t find the penguin in the bathroom. Spoiler: she finds the penguin. And she wants him out. João pleads for a week of recovery time, or maybe two. Eventually Maria agrees.
My Penguin Friend offers insight into the playful nature of these adaptable birds. The story has two versions. The true (and shorter) tale at the core of the movie is that an ailing penguin got rescued by a retired mason and became his savior’s friend. The movie expands the tale by inventing formative events, including a backstory that shapes the future.
In both the original event and the film, the themes are the same. The penguin becomes João’s friend, not his pet. This perky creature is always welcome to visit and free to come and go. João names him DinDim, which is how the real João’s little boy pronounced “pinguim,” the Portuguese word for penguin. And because DinDim brings João a sense of love and purpose, João begins to heal.
The filmmakers go full throttle in casting their leading actors. In the role of Maria is Adriana Barraza, a Mexican actress who was Oscar nominated for her role in Babel. And playing João is international film star Jean Reno. Reno’s prolific career includes playing Léon, the unforgettable bad-guy hero who rescues 12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman) in the 1994 feature The Professional. When global superstar Reno was assured by director David Schurmann that the penguin was the main and most important character, Reno agreed to take the supporting role to a bird. Which raises the question—can a penguin carry an entire feature film? Apparently, yes. The filmmakers figured it out.
Fabian Gabelli, a.k.a. the “penguin whisperer,” had a game plan. Gabelli trained ten rescue penguins borrowed from Brazil’s Ubatuba Aquarium. The newly trained birds were rotated throughout filming, according to the demands of each scene and the skills mastered by each bird. While we believe we’re watching the same penguin throughout the film, eight birds are sharing the role of DinDim. Yes, only eight, not ten. Two of the birds got sidelined when they fell in love. Which would not be a problem if penguin pairing weren’t such a game changer. But the two lovebirds refused to be apart, even for a minute. Just the same, the cast credits honorably recognize all ten of the trained penguins: Alcione, Amelia, Big Z, Capitao, Fafa, Homer, Maui, Madalena, Rosita, and Teodora. We don’t know which names belong to the lovebirds. But among the eight birds, one bird scored more scenes than the others because he was the most adaptable. His name is Maui, in case he has a future in Hollywood.
Truthfully, this film could have used a little improvement with some of the dialogue as well as the secondary casting. But this gentle tale is well worth watching, both for the story and the luscious scenery. My Penguin Friend is about the unexpected events that bless our lives. And this true story is bound to soothe whatever ails you, with this conclusion: when a man rescued a penguin, two lives were saved.