Pangolin: Kulu's Journey

"Kulu's Journey" so beautifully captures the relationship between a pangolin and his human caretaker.

In many ways, this documentary is a tribute to the unsung heroes on the frontlines of wildlife conservation around the world - sacrificing their time, relationships and worldly possessions for the animals they care so deeply for.

Without people like Gareth Thomas, pangolins will be reduced to nothing more than stories of a bygone era. It's thanks to volunteers and conservationists alike that we are able to share our planet with such incredible species.

A must watch, and another stellar documentary produced by Pippa Ehrlich and her team.

I didn't tear up until David lifted Kulu at the end-now my eyes are swollen and my heart feels so full. Seeing him feed this tiny, trembling pangolin, whispering to her with that gentle kindness, I felt something crack open inside me. There's no heavy-handed lecture-just pure, vulnerable moments that make you want to stand up for these creatures. Pippa Greenwood has a gift for letting feelings breathe. I keep replaying that final scene in my head. It's rare to feel this small and hopeful at once. I'm still crying days later. I can't shake its gentle power. It left a permanent mark on my soul. .

Fantastic story of a selfless person giving everything to help another harmless species suffering at the hand of the human race, and the pangolin in return providing the guiding star during a time of need back to Gareth.

The cinematography was brilliant, showing scenes of untouched nature in the beautiful landscapes of South Africa, very impressive lightning and thunder storms, and some what seems to be crazy nights spent under the stars in a world of predators.

It was really well portrayed, directed, and edited throughout providing a thorough, emotional, and gripping story from start to finish.

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!