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How ‘The Penguin Lessons’ Director Captured Human Emotions From the Bird — and What Footage Landed on the Editing Room Floor
'The Penguin Lessons' balances stories about an adorable penguin and the atrocities of a political uprising in 1976 Argentina.
After Cattaneo was given the script by one of the producers, he went back to its source material, a memoir of the same name by Tom Michell, which was a tale of the unexpected bond between man and penguin in the setting of a British private school in Buenos Aires. But getting the tonal balance just right of the poignant story of Tom’s experience with the penguin and respecting the historical context of the Argentinian coup was tricky — and it was the main focus of conversations throughout making the movie. “The key was to find the right balance, showing the tragic impact of the regime on two of our supporting characters, whilst keeping the story of Tom’s redemption and awakening at the center of the narrative,” Cattaneo explains.
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