MRAC Cinema Club presents The Penguin Lessons

Followed by refreshments Film release date: 2025 Film languages: English, Spanish

Federation Room, Brolga Theatre

Directed by Peter Cattaneo (who also directed The Full Monty) and based on a true story as described in an autobiography of the same name, this comedy/drama set in the political turmoil of 1970s Argentina stars Steve Coogan as Tom, a disillusioned middle-aged English teacher who is working in a private boys’ school in Buenos Aires and dealing with a class of unteachable boys. On a trip to Uruguay with a fellow teacher, he rescues a Magellanic penguin that has been affected by an oil slick. After the penguin is cleaned up and fed, it refuses to leave its rescuer and they travel back to Argentina together. He smuggles the bird, now named Juan Salvador, into his school, where it has a positive effect on his difficult students. After the headmaster finds out, Tom is asked to leave the school, but he becomes caught up in trying to help the school housekeeper’s grand-daughter, who has been kidnapped due to her political activism. He too is arrested and assaulted, but ultimately freed and accepted back at the school, where the headmaster recognises the positive benefits provided by Juan Salvador.

The film received a mixed response from critics, though a high audience rating. Some critics felt that it could have explored the political questions more fully, and one critic commented that ‘inspirational teacher cliches’ are offset by ‘a first rate performance by a scene-stealing penguin’.

All in all, a feel-good film that is a great ending to another successful Arts Council Cinema Club year.