Wildcat

This 2022 documentary, co-directed by Trevor Beck Frost and Melissa Lesh, follows a young British soldier back from Afghanistan. Struggling with depression and post-traumatic stress, Harry Turner meets the American scientist Samantha Zwicker in the Amazon, and together they raise an orphaned baby ocelot and prepare it for release. Caring for the animal becomes entangled with the man's own recovery. The documentary's honesty comes from refusing to turn that parallel into an easy story of salvation: Harry's suicidal thoughts and crises are shown uncensored, and the animal's presence does not heal him, it only keeps him standing for a while. The camera is at times uncomfortably close, which raises the question of where permitted intimacy ends. The images of the forest are extraordinary. Who it's for: viewers interested in nature documentary and personal accounts of mental illness. Who it's not for: anyone approaching content about suicide and self-harm unprepared, or unable to take scenes of an animal's death.