It’s not easy being a homo sapiens. We have to go to work every day, sitting in front of a bright, glaring screen for eight hours, or do something that will make our feet hurt. When we’re hungry, we can’t just eat – we have to buy our food from a shop, which costs money we’ve earned by working.
The food is wrapped in plastic and shipped from miles away. We have two days a week to relax, which we often spend doing administrative tasks or washing our clothes. It goes on like this until we die, which also costs money when you factor in funerals and debts.
Director: Huw Cordey
Star: David Attenborough
Not so for the orangutan, which, according to David Attenborough’s new Netflix documentary, Secret Lives of Orangutans, is one of our closest living relatives, sharing “nearly 30 physical characteristics with us.” Unlike us, however, their days are largely spent freely eating and grazing (adult male orangutans can eat about 8,000 calories a day, just in fruit and termites), or swinging from tree to tree. Attenborough informs us that many orangutans spend their lives never touching the ground. Their existence is one of leaves and unlimited leisure, of berries and shelter from the tropical rain.
Secret Lives of Orangutans is often fascinating. We watch as eight-year-old Eden has to learn to survive on her own when her mother turns her attention to a new (unbearably cute) baby orangutan. We learn that orangutans make their own beds of leaves every night, each in their own style and sometimes even with pillows. We see how male orangutans tend to call out across the jungle, alerting nearby neighbors of their upcoming travel plans as well as the fact that they are available to fight and mate. Is this how we would live without the incessant demands of capitalist society? It's hard to say.
Aside from the occasional blunt moment, don't expect a great deal of drama. The 80-minute documentary is aimed at all ages and maintains a sweet, light-hearted tone throughout – ideal for post-hangover viewing, essentially. “Despite their size and strength, they are gentle, thoughtful, problem-solving creatures,” Attenborough says in his trademark reassuring tone, as the camera pans to an orangutan crawling through the branches with a termite nest in its mouth. Birdsong and string quartets simmer in the background, making it impossible not to feel completely relaxed while watching this emerald treetop universe, filmed in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia.
As Attenborough tells us, we’ve only been able to peek into the private lives of these apes more recently (for more than 20 years, scientists at the Orangutan Research Project have been watching them, and now have access to new filming techniques, including the use of small drones).
In that sense, being able to get so close to these creatures in the wild – zooming in on a baby’s thumb gripping its mother’s hair, the way their expressions change when they sense impending danger, their eyelids drooping as they succumb to sleep – feels like an immense privilege. “Orangutans are normally solitary, but the ones that live here are remarkably social,” Attenborough says. “They watch and learn from each other, and in doing so, they’ve created a unique culture.”
Secret Lives of Orangutans is not the place to go if you’re expecting adrenaline-fuelled drama. Even fights between tusked males are brief and alluded to. And the documentary doesn't quite reach the staggering visual and aural heights of some of the more spectacular wildlife TV offerings, such as the BBC's Planet Earth III or Netflix's Our Planet II. Still, it makes for gentle but captivating viewing; a beautiful glimpse into a world we don't often see.
Will you watch it with bated breath? Probably not. But will you come away with a renewed appreciation for the magnificence of our planet and its furry, arboreal inhabitants? Of course.
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