Saving Moon - DVD

Movie: Residents of Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada were astonished when young orca Luna first appeared in their waters in the early summer of 2001, many hundreds of miles from the herd he had been spotted with just the previous year. Even more amazing than Luna's appearance, however, were the killer whale's attempts to make contact with the locals. The affectionate nudging of boats, the playful splashing of onlookers or the almost tender snuggling up to outstretched hands quickly made Luna a real sensation, but in the following years it was to cause quite a stir and trouble in the region. In 2004, journalist Michael Parfit and his wife Suzanne Chisholm came to the area to do a little reporting on Luna. Ultimately, the couple stayed there for three years, during which time they filmed Saving Luna - The Story of a Young Whale, which documents the dispute between bureaucrats, indigenous people, animal rights activists and fishermen over the fate of the whale.

The film is a documentary worth watching, though at times it suffers a bit from the overly campy narration of director Michael Parfait, whose favorite concept seems to be the imaginary wall that exists between humans and animals. But that aside, the film is extremely interesting, at times very funny, at other times extremely sad. It infuriates and amazes while telling a story as beautiful as it is sad.

The images captured by Parfit, as well as residents of the Nootka Sound region, television crews and tourists of Luna, are truly unique in that they show in a fascinating way why the term killer whale is totally inappropriate for the orca. But not only the beautiful pictures make this documentary worth seeing. Also the chronicle of the partly very arrogant attempts of humans to decide about Luna's fate lift the film above the level of usual nature and animal documentaries. It is interesting to note that not only politicians and administrators, but also animal rights activists and indigenous people, with their sometimes absolutely absurd demands and regulations, do more harm to the whale's well-being than help it. For example, aggressive animal rights activists forbid any contact with the whale and even make direct eye contact with Luna a punishable offence.

Very nicely, Luna has never minded the squabbles of humans. The whale simply took his petting and playful pleasure, even when it was actually forbidden by the humans. The fact that Luna's efforts for attention were not allowed to be adequately accepted and thus the attempts to attract attention sometimes became a bit more rabid, so that soon one or the other boat had to suffer from it, was actually only an unavoidable consequence. The whale, popular with everyone, soon became a real nuisance to many fishermen and boat owners and some of them even called for the guns.

Luna's fate has been in the news all over the world, but for those who don't yet know how the story ends, we won't spoil it here, of course. What is clear is that Luna has moved people. Her story has been documented in numerous articles, a book, a TV movie and in this documentary. An absolutely worth seeing film about an extraordinary animal!

Picture + Sound: Since the documentary makes use of not only self-shot material, but also home video footage and clips from news broadcasts, the picture quality depends a little on the source material. Overall, though, the quality is on par with the usual docu-level, with the coloring and overall sharpness being particularly convincing. The audio is primarily dominated by the music and narrator voices. Large surround effects should therefore not be expected. Good.

Extras: Bonus material has the DVD unfortunately not to offer.

Conclusion: Saving Luna - The Story of a Young Whale is a fascinating as well as moving documentary that proves once again that man is not really the crown of creation. A film that moves, that amazes, that infuriates, but at the same time makes the viewer laugh as well as cry. If you have a soft spot for extraordinary animal documentaries, you should not miss this film. Absolutely recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp