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An indefinitely strange and incredibly endearing creature resembling a hybrid of antiate, pine and Pokémon, the pangolin has discreetly excited the earth in one form or another for about 80 million years. But after having coexisted with the dinosaurs and endured with change, this scaly and scaly mammal is now on the verge of being destroyed by humans. Poached and harvested for traditional Chinese medicine, it faces extinction over the following two decades if illegal trade continues at current levels.
A new moving Netflix documentary from the manufacturer of My octopus teacher highlights the fate of the pangolin and the admirable efforts of small organizations and individuals to protect this “unicorn type creature” against traffickers in South Africa. The film begins with the rescue of a young animal in a bite operation and continues to follow the traumatized rehabilitation of the puppy in a year under the careful supervision of local volunteer Gareth Thomas. Like the previous feature of the director Pippa Ehrlich, which has become an improbable streaming hit and the winner of an Oscar, Marcholin: Kulu's trip is as much an emotional study of human nature and interspecific communication as a high resolution study of the natural world.
“There is just something about pangolins,” observes Thomas very early. Watch Kulu do your activities in the safety of a wildlife installation – Food for ants; Precapitating with his anxiously attached “arms” in front of him – you start to get what he means. For all the distinctive characteristics of the animal – the armored and rolled body and the incredibly flexible tongue – what really stands out is its calm and vulnerable innocence. A scene capturing the trembling shock of Kulu while he is electrocuted by a fence will even test the most stoic spectator.
While the film shamelessly shoot the strings of the heart, nothing has been affected in the adored “parenting” of Thomas or his anxiety of separation while Kulu's return to wild weaving trades. We hear how the work gave him a sense of objective and how his intense attachment to Kulu helped him overcome the sorrow he felt after the sudden death of his closest friends. The poignant irony is that where the pangolins are killed for remedies, taking care of a single healing experience for its manager.
The history of man and the creature that grows together is edifying and yet, sometimes, both tiring and too sentimental. But there is, towards the end, a reminder which gives to reflect the way in which humans abuse the environment and a call to more responsibility and conscience. As Nicci Wright says, rehabilitation expert: “If a special creature like a pangolin is lost, it symbolizes the way we treat everything.”
★★★★ ☆
On Netflix now
