Watch the Inspiring Tale of a Penguin and the Man Who Saved Him.

Friendship can transcend species. Some people’s best friends are dogs or cats. But one movie tells the tale of a five-year friendship between a man and a penguin.

The true story of the friendship between a retired Brazilian fisherman and a Magellanic penguin was captured in the movie My Penguin Friend that was released on August, 16 2024, according to HOT96.9. It is a story that will warm your heart.

An unlikely friendship
The tale begins when a lost penguin was rescued from an oil spill by João Pereira de Souza, known as Seu João from Ilha Grande, an island in Rio de Janeiro state, reported The Guardian. Seu João first met the penguin that was covered in oil in 2011. He took the ailing bird home, washed and fed him and named him Dindim. The penguin decided to stay.

It’s not unusual for Magellanic penguins – that were named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan – to appear in the waters around Brazil. That’s because the penguins have breeding colonies along parts of Argentina and Chile. What is highly unusual is the bond that formed between Seu João and Dindim.

For five years, the penguin spent eight months at the beach and only four months at sea. At one point, a team from Ubatuba Aquarium confirmed that Dindim was male and tagged him. A few months later the penguin returned and it was confirmed that it was the same penguin.

In 2016, Cyro Scarpa, an executive producer for the Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo met the pair when he did a TV piece. He told The Guardian: “They would swim together, then the little creature would return home, go straight to the shower and wait for the man to turn on the tap.”

In September 2016, Dindim returned to the sea and never returned. Since the penguin was six years old and fully mature, he may have found a mate in the place he originated from and stayed there.

“People always talk about how Seu João rescued the penguin. But for me, the story is also about how Dindim rescued him,” the film maker and director David Schurmann said.

The making of the movie
The film had two leads, one was played by Hollywood star Jean Reno and the other was played by a group of newcomers. Ten penguins from Ubatuba Aquarium took turns playing the role of Dindim.  All of the penguins were rescued or born in captivity.

These unlikely actors had a movie trailer with a natural salt water pool and only worked until 3 pm to protect them from mosquitos. Two of the penguins fell in love during the shooting and were relieved from acting duties. One of the penguins, seven-year-old Maui, performed most of the scenes because he worked well with the human actors. The penguins were really the stars of the film.

“I had to tell Jean Reno, a cinema legend, ‘Jean, the penguin is more important than you in this film’… he was incredibly respectful and understood,” Schurmann said.

The movie is not just about relationships, it also had an environmental angle, since Dindim was rescued covered in oil but the message was very subtle and not in your face.

“For me, this is a story about how even small acts of empathy towards another being, not necessarily a human, can have lasting effects,” said Schurmann. “I tried to create something that would give people some comfort, a bit of relief and hope in this harsh world.”