This Brazilian-American family friendly story, directed by David Schurmann, is based on the true story of fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza and Dindim the penguin; their story went viral. The movie was filmed primarily on the beaches of Brazil and amongst a colony of nearly a million penguins in Patagonia.
Joao (Jean Reno) is a fisherman who lives in a beachfront bungalow with his wife and young son. He enjoys his simple life and makes a good enough living. But everything changes when his son dies during a sudden storm at sea. Joao plunges into a dark cloud of guilt and depression.
Then one day he comes upon an injured penguin covered with oil. Joao cleans him and makes a place for him by his home. His wife (Adriana Barraza) is quite surprised to see her husband’s nurturing capacities and is not so sure about this new family member. But eventually she comes around. The penguin’s antics delight everyone in their small village, and he is named Dindim by a little girl admirer.
All seems to be going well until one day Dindim disappears. We see him later joining a large colony of penguins that is being studied by some scientists. They find the friendly little one fascinating and tag him so they can keep track of his whereabouts. When the other penguins in the colony head out to sea for their annual migration, Dindim goes in the other direction. He returns to Joao and the village. His journey is more than 5000 miles, and he repeats it every year.
This remarkable accomplishment is reason enough to enjoy this film. We love to see old-fashioned adventure stories like this one – and there’s even some suspense to liven things up when the scientists decide to take Dindim away to study his behavior.
But My Penguin Friend’s real value is in its portrait of the spiritual practice of reverence. Joao demonstrates what it means to truly respect an animal, including its natural instincts to leave every so often. It’s no surprise that Dindim is faithful to his friend.