Pangolín: El viaje de Kulu

First of all, this story does not justify its 88-minute runtime, sorry. There's simply not that much content in it, at least in this form. It could easily have been told in a ca. 40 minutes and would have made a great short doc.

The pangolin, while undeniably adorable, has limited behaviors and therefore limited filming possibilities - although the cinematography is superb. But after a while, it feels like you're watching the same happenings and same shots on repeat.

The human character is a kind and nice person, but not particularly charismatic or compelling. I felt that almost any of the other people involved in the rewilding effort could have made for a more engaging protagonist.

It feels like the creators tried to follow a similar formula to My Octopus Teacher, though with a different narrative, but this time it just didn't work. Especially not at this length.

What makes this a captivating, magnificient watch is one part direction, one part visuals, and eight parts Anne Nikitin.

As much as the documentary moved me, it was due greatly in part to the earthly, seismic, tectonic, and elemental soundtrack.

Merging deep bass with the rumbles of thunder, soothingly seguing into the sound of rain against the backdrop of soulful ululations of Venda folk songs, the music transports you into a world of goosebumps.

For the purists, this might not be a documentary, but then, does it really matter? The film brings to light the plight of one of the rarest, most reclusive, most ancient of mammals to still roam the earth.

I would much rather call a movie, but that would be doing it a disservice. I would call it a documentary, and that would be a stretch.

What it can, however, be called is a love letter. A love letter to nature. A billet doux to the underdog. A liebesbrief to one of the geekiest, quiestest, and unassuming of mammals.

Watch it, and make everyone around you watch it!

A Joburg man describes himself as a hyperactive child and has always doubted whether he's good enough, probably because he could never sit still and couldn't make it through high school. He then spends his youth in motor racing and partying, leading a life of debauchery and lack of consequences. That is until two of his friends die in an accident, causing him to take stock of his own life and wondering the meaning of it. Here in the making of this documentary, he finds his purpose looking after a juvenile pangolin, initially named Gijima, then renamed by him as Kulu, because why not.

The precious pangolin cannot express its consent to anything that it will be subjected to for the sake of this documentary and its storytelling, which chooses to focus on the handler's supposed redemption, rather than the terrible plight of pangolins in the poaching world. Isn't it curious that the most vulnerable pangolin in the program's care, Gijima, was placed in the hands of the most inexperienced handler, Gareth? It is clearly nothing more than a plot device to raise the stakes for Gareth - will he succeed or will he prove a failure yet again? How nail-biting.

Just like in My Octopus Teacher, this documentary prioritises the human element over the animal subject. It comes across as the pangolin having been twice exploited; the first time by poachers, torn away from its mother, only to be rescued and cast in a supporting role to humans who are seeking purpose, recognition and perhaps a second Oscar win for Best Documentary. What's more on the cards is a diagnosis of ADHD for Gareth. Unfortunately, he doesn't make a compelling protagonist and his personal history feels intentionally vague, so I was unable to invest in his story. Save for cute shots of Gijima, I was thoroughly bored.

I truly loved this documentrary. Reading through some of the more negative reviews on here, I feel like a lot of folks have overlooked some key points the film was trying to make about the difficulties of the rewilding process. I think that those who feel that the Pangolin's walker, Gareth, was being too hands on or cuddling the Pangolin too much need to also take into account that the Pangolin was literally just a baby when it was rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and needed to, not only gain the weight to help him survive the wild before release, but, also, needed to learn the skills that would help protect him from future predators. A baby pangolin needs 24/7 round the clock care. I can't imagine that a total lack of nurturing would have benefited the Pangolin. Kulu also needed to have a certain amount of familiarity with Gareth as he was taking Kulu out on the reserve every day for months to forage and learn to be wild again. In the film Kulu was shown to often be making a run for it, so I never got the sense that he was being conditioned to " not be afraid" of humans. I think that it must have been difficult to give Kulu the space he needed to learn how to be wild, while at the same time helping him avoid the electric fences and other dangers. The rewilding process here was not at all a simple or straightforward feat, and I feel the film did a good job of explaining this. "There was a fear of failure". They were open about the fact that there were learning curves, but their previous, less hands-on attempts to rewild the Pangolins had been failing and they needed to change their approach. I was personally fine with the amount of screentime and backstory that Gareth had in the film, and enjoyed his narration and his commentary that Kulu helped him change the way he saw the world was moving. He volunteered over a year of his life for Kulu's rewilding, and is now working on projects to modify electric fences to help further save Pangolins. I enjoyed hearing a little bit about the people who are helping these beautiful creatures. I loved this documentary and can't wait for Pippa Ehrlich's next one!

So many rare animals have been poached and killed for their body parts for 'traditional medicine' (said 'medicine' loosely) or sold as exotic pets. SO cruel.

I am thankful there are those kind humans and scientists and government officials out to stop poachers and this horrendous trade. All pangolins are vulnerable to critically endangered on all land masses. I hope these efforts are successful, and make people realize how important our living records of ancient life are, like these pangolins.

Thank you for making such an informative and natural documentary about an amazing animal, and the amazing people trying to protect them.