The schoolteacher and the penguin, with a side of politics

Steve Coogan is at his wry best in The Penguin Lessons, a comedy-drama set on the eve of the 1976 Argentinian coup.

Steve Coogan in the Penguin Lessons.

The Penguin Lessons (M)
112 minutes
In cinemas
★★★

“I ended up with no sex and a penguin.” So ­laments schoolteacher Tom Michell (Steve Coogan) when he ends up with avian rather than female companionship in the charming low-key comedy-drama The Penguin Lessons.

Coogan delivers the line in his characteristic deadpan style. When he is appointed assistant rugby coach, he remarks “I like my balls round.”

It’s 1976 and Argentina is on the brink of a military coup. Michell has just arrived in ­Buenos Aires to teach English at an exclusive boys school. The slightly eccentric headmaster (Jonathan Pryce, who has fun in the role), advises him that “We try to keep out of it. We’re very small P when it comes to politics.”

Michell is fine with that. He’s a jaded man for reasons that add emotional depth to this film directed by Peter Cattaneo, best known for The Full Monty (1997), and written by Jeff Pope.

When the school is shut down for a week, Michell heads to Paraguay. The physics master (Bjorn Gustafsson), who is divorced from both his wife and any sense of irony, tags along. “I like you Michell,’’ he says. Michell replies, “Do you? I don’t.”

Michell meets a woman in a nightclub and, after drinking and dancing, they walk along a beach. It’s here, on oil-sodden sand, that they find a Magellanic penguin. Michell wants to leave it to its fate but the woman doesn’t and he fancies the woman so …

From here the film moves to Michell trying to abandon a penguin that, unlike the woman, has bonded with him. There are some nice comic moments, such as when he and the penguin, heading back to Argentina, are interrogated by a customs officer who wants a bribe.

Back home, the penguin lives in his bathroom and slowly becomes a confidante, not just for Michell but for others. It makes sense. The penguin says little and does not judge. The headmaster’s therapy session is a highlight.

Jonathan Pryce, seen here at the UK premiere of The Penguin Lessons, has fun with the role of the headmaster. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

As the title suggests, the penguin makes its way into the classroom, to the delight of the unruly students, and for a moment it looks like we might have The Not Dead Penguin Society.

Yet the real society here, the one that brings warmth and compassion to the film, is Michell’s growing friendship with his housekeeper Maria (an excellent Vivian El Jaber) and her political activist granddaughter Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio).

When Michell tells them his secret, the look on Maria’s face says it all.

When the coup d’etat happens, when political activists are pulled off the streets and imprisoned, it’s not a bird that will make a difference.

Michell has to decide whether to fight for what he used to believe in when he was young and idealistic: “Freedom,’’ as he tells his students at one stage.

This movie is enjoyable to watch and has its serious side. At the end of the day, though, it’s mainly about a schoolteacher and a penguin. The political upheaval is there but it is not examined in any detail.

If you want that, watch The Brazil-set I’m Still Here, which won best international film at the 2025 Academy Awards.