The Penguin Lessons

Buenos Aires, 1976. The English teacher Tom Michell arrives in Argentina to teach at an elite boys' school. On the coast he finds a Magellanic penguin covered in oil, cleans it, and the bird refuses to leave him. The penguin comes to school; at the same time the country is sliding towards a military coup. The film is not interested in being a charming animal story. It is interested in the impossibility of staying a spectator: Michell is a man who has chosen to keep away from politics, and the film confronts him with that choice once the people around him start disappearing. The form tries to carry two tones at once: the penguin scenes are funny and warming, the street scenes describe a country on the edge of the Dirty War. The transitions between them are the most fragile thing in it. The source is Tom Michell's memoir of the same name, published in 2015, adapted by Jeff Pope. Peter Cattaneo, who also made The Full Monty, directed. It played at the Toronto festival in September 2024 and opened on 28 March 2025 in the United States and 18 April 2025 in Britain. Steve Coogan plays Michell and Jonathan Pryce the headmaster. Who it is for: viewers who like true stories, animals and measured sentiment. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the politics to be treated seriously. The coup stays in the background and the weight goes to the penguin.