This year's Oscar for best documentary was awarded to an octopus.
In fact, this octopus is nothing special. It is an ordinary one among the sea creatures, who walks alone and lives carefully under various disguise.
If it hadn’t happened to be discovered by Craig Foster, like most of her kind, she should have existed silently until the end of her short life-octopuses rarely survive in the wild More than 18 months.
When meeting "her", the filmmaker Craig was experiencing a great crisis in his life.
Years of hard work has exhausted him. The career he once loved can no longer bring happiness. He doesn't even want to see the camera or enter the editing room anymore. He was completely overwhelmed, couldn't sleep well for several months, depressed, and his family relationship fell into chaos.
He decided to suspend work and return to his hometown of Cape Town, South Africa, which is where he feels most secure. When he was a child, he always dived to play in the seaweed forest near the coast, and these most direct pleasures obtained in nature can no longer be experienced as an adult. He began to dive into the bottom of the water every day. The cold sea water cleared his brain, and his immersion in the underwater world gradually calmed his heart.
"When you enter the water, you will feel at ease. All the worries and troubles in your life will disappear. Gradually, you begin to care about all animals, even the smallest animals. You realize that every life is important. ."
The wildest and terrifying sea on this earth opened up a magical world for him. In the process of constantly exploring in the water, he regained his energy, regained his camera, and did what he loved and was good at.
Until one day, he saw this octopus hiding under the shells and stones, and his curiosity drove him to spend several hours tracking her every day for nearly a year.
An octopus who is used to walking alone, and a person who tries to dive into the seabed to escape from life, become "close friends" and leave an important mark in each other's lives.
"Many people say that octopuses are like aliens, but the strange thing is that after close contact with them, you will realize that we have a lot in common." "My Octopus Teacher" is about A story about seeing herself in the fate of an octopus and finding the meaning of her life in her life.
What does it mean to be trusted by a wild animal
It is not so easy to gain the trust of an octopus. In the perilous ocean, she may become the prey of others at any time, so always be vigilant. When she first saw the huge "human creature" in front of her, she just hid in her cave, stuffed her liquid body into the crack, ready to escape at any time.
It wasn't until Craig put down the camera and walked away that she tried to touch the novel object with her tentacles.
In this way, the temptation to come and go lasted until the 26th day, when Craig reached out her hand that day, she also reached out and touched him.
Craig realized that a large part of her fear of him had faded, and just as he was curious about her, she was curious about him. Slowly, she even walked out of the cave in front of him and began to move around at will.
However, on the 52nd day, while she was swimming with him, Craig accidentally dropped a camera, which terrified her, she quickly ran away and never returned to her cave.
In order to find her again, Craig mapped out her daily trajectory, searching for her traces through the animals she hunted. This animal has learned to hide himself for millions of years. To track her, he must make himself "think like an octopus."
Finally, after a whole week, he found her. After a brief hesitation, she chose to trust him again. She leaned on his hand and floated on the water with him, even crawling to his chest, almost a hug.
He realized that he was finally allowed to walk into her secret world.
Her life depends on superb wisdom
How smart are octopuses?
There are about 300 species of octopuses in the world. They are invertebrates and most of them live alone on the bottom of the sea. However, unlike many molluscs, they have the ability to learn and remember, and their IQ is equivalent to that of cats or dogs, and even comparable to lower-level primates.
Researchers have found that they tend to solve problems faster than smart mammals. They can change the color and texture of their skin to adapt to the surrounding environment, which gives them incredible camouflage and an amazing ability to avoid predators.
Octopuses don't have any skills taught by their parents, so they can only explore on their own, and this allows them to learn to observe and imitate.
She is one of these clever creatures. Following close observations, Craig can see very wonderful things in her every day.
Most of the time, she sprayed water forward, but from time to time she would stretch out her two legs to "walk". It is likely that she was imitating the shape of seaweed and "disguised herself with extraordinary creativity."
She will formulate strategies, can always figure out ways to catch prey quickly, and will even introduce Craig as part of her hunting strategy.
Her body is the best tool for hunting and her escape. In order to avoid the hunting of her mortal enemy sharks, she even swims to shallow waters and climbs onto land.
From her, Craig learned how to track underwater, which gave him the key to exploring the underwater world, and he became more and more aware of the vividness and diversity of the marine ecosystem.
This was the first lesson she taught him.
There are strange similarities in their lives
However, living in an underwater world that follows the law of the weak and the strong, sometimes there is no escape from danger.
On the 125th day, one of her tentacles was bitten off during a battle with a shark. Because of excessive blood loss, the body was unable to show its normal color and was almost dying.
Craig witnessed the whole process on the sidelines. He couldn't restrain his worries about her. This kind of emotion he had never had before. To empathize with others, this is another lesson she taught him. Seeing her pain, he also began to think about his own death and his own vulnerability. In the process of observing her time and time again, he was re-recognizing himself.
In the next few days, Craig thought this might be their last meeting. But he was surprised to find that she showed amazing vitality and healed very quickly. About a week later, a tiny little tentacles had grown from the severed hand.
About a hundred days later, the tentacles had regained full length, and she was rejuvenated.
When she met sharks again, she had more experience. She protected herself with shells and stones to prevent sharks from biting, just like when they first met; she even moved herself to the least dangerous place in some way ——On the back of the shark, it won a new round of battle.
There are strange similarities in their lives. After experiencing great pain, she gradually recovered, and Craig's life has also been positively changed. His relationship with others and humans has changed. He applies these experiences from the octopus to his own life, and the relationship between him and his son is gradually healed. The trauma of the past was healed, and he regained his ability to love.
She taught him the last lesson with her life
Compared with humans, the life span of octopuses is too short. On the day of mating and laying eggs, she began to stop eating and became weaker day by day. That was the 324th day when they met. While gestating life, she gradually began to die.
In the end, she was completely helpless and rushed out of the cave, and the fish that had been hunted by her gathered to feed on her. A big shark came the next day and made her disappear completely in this ocean.
Craig was involved in almost 80% of her time, and he realized how incredible the short life of an octopus was.
Octopus hatches nearly 500,000 cubs at a time, and only a few survive. They live fast, die early, and regenerate fast, but they survive generation after generation, which makes them the most resilient creatures on the planet. one.
And she is wise, tenacious, and full of resilience. Her life journey has gone through all kinds of dangers, but she is willing to enjoy it all.
She was full of curiosity about the world, which prompted her to trust this human being who suddenly appeared in front of her, willing to take the risk to see the outside world with him.
Not only hunting and chasing in her life, she also relaxes, plays leisurely, throws her tentacles on the fish, and plays with them.
Perhaps this is the reason why the film touches people. Craig does not record the octopus's every move with the attitude of scrutiny and research, but uses an equal attitude to associate with her. He is not simply shooting octopuses, but also keenly peeping into the delicate and sensitive inner world of octopuses.
He allows people to see how a little life is living hard, and let their short life bloom with more wonderful moments. This is why people can have strong empathy in an octopus.
"That is their strategy, to live happily and live a short life." This is the last lesson she taught her with life.
Although the film "My Octopus Teacher" is only 85 minutes, it took more than 8 years and 3000 hours to shoot.
For ten years, Craig has been diving in sea water every day, sometimes as long as 5 hours a day. He has witnessed the arrival and departure of five generations of octopuses. His home is full of the "treasures" he brought back during the expedition. Each drawer contains shells found in the cave of an octopus. He can tell the story behind each item.
Over the years, other animals have also reached out to come in contact with him, "every time is amazing and healing", but nothing can compare to his "once in a lifetime" connection with octopus, he said, "she taught I am humble. She taught me to be compassionate. She opened my heart to let me know how complex and precious wild animals are."
Until now, he often sneaked into her former home, "When an animal has such a big impact on you...you can't help but fall in love with the environment that created her. Going there feels like going home. "
Year after year, his connection with the ocean world is getting closer and closer, and he has learned to talk to nature. Craig said the biggest lesson she taught him is that humans are part of the natural world around us, not just visitors.
"The part that belongs to nature is still hidden under our skin." Teacher Octopus taught him to catch a glimpse of this. He became one of the founders of the "Ocean Change Project" and devoted himself to the protection of the seaweed forest.
He was lucky to find his connection with nature and life in the ocean. But Craig said that it is not necessary to reconnect with nature through an octopus. The "teacher" can be found anywhere:
"If you suddenly become interested in a tree in New York and want to know how the tree has changed in 365 days, which animals interact with it, which insects live there, and how the tree survives, it’s all possible. Have a considerable impact on your life."
He believes that in nature, there are countless such stories being staged every day, and she is just one of them.
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