Jos de Putter
Netherlands, Belgium | 2014 | 75 min
Language : English
Subtitle : French
Jos de Putter portrays the daily lives of three famous senior chimpanzees, inhabitants of a retirement home for elderly apes. They are Cheeta, the world’s most famous ape and last survivor of the Tarzan films, Kanzi, the smartest ape on the planet, and Knuckles, hero of the space age. We, humans, have trained them and used them, but they might have something surprising to teach us.
Jos de Putter portrays the daily lives of three famous senior chimpanzees, inhabitants of a retirement home for elderly apes. They are Cheeta, the most famous ape on the planet and last survivor of the Tarzan films, Kanzi, the smartest ape on the planet, and Knuckles, hero of the space age. Cheeta eats his porridge with a spoon and paints “apestract” art. He celebrates his 80th birthday surrounded by humans, therefore - in a way - alone. Kanzi tries (or is forced to try) to transmit his ability to communicate to his young son. Knuckles carries on him the signs of extreme experiences. “It is almost impossible to look at an ape, a chimpanzee or bonobo in particular, and to see nothing but an ape. In a certain sense, a glance at an ape is always a glance in the mirror” says Jos de Putter about his film. But the image we receive is possibly not what we expect. For a long time we, humans, have been training and using apes for acquiring knowledge, but they might have something surprising - and supposedly very “human” - to teach us.
Paolo Moretti
