Wildcat

An outstanding animal documentary shaped by fate.

Into the wild: Harry and Keanu

This film is something of a triumph for Melissa Lesh and Trevor Beck Frost since for both of them it marks their directorial feature debut and it turns out to be a very professional piece of work. Their contributions to the project extend to involvement in the film’s production and photography while Melissa Lesh is also one of four editors. This joint project took them to the Peruvian Amazon since their aim was to film two people who were working there. One was Harry Turner, a young man from Britain, and the other Samantha Zwicker, an American scientist and ecologist. Samantha was there first and had been involved in the setting up of Hoja Nueva, a non-profit project concerned with protecting biodiversity in the area, and it was she who took on Harry as an employee when he arrived in Peru. This work would bring them together in an attempt to raise a baby ocelot rescued from being seized by black market dealers and Wildcat follows that process over seventeen months. It takes that long because the ocelot has to be looked after lovingly but also has to be taught its wildlife needs so that when it is ready to be released it can exist in full independence and use its natural instincts to find its prey.

As that description indicates, this is a film containing much to appeal to animal lovers although it needs to be stressed that this is far from being a sentimental work. Indeed Harry, who becomes the individual to whom the ocelot now given the name of Keanu most strongly responds, seems to positively relish encouraging Keanu to find rodents which he will kill and eat. In addition, given that some might regard a film about raising an ocelot as ideal family entertainment, it should be mentioned that one factor causing the film to bear a 15 certificate is Harry’s frequent use of strong language. However, what is striking about Wildcat is the exceptional extent to which the filmmakers are able to get close-up footage that brings out splendidly the rapport that grows up between Keanu and Harry so that one becomes aware of Harry’s role as one that without any exaggeration can be seen as that of a foster parent.

It is this aspect of this well-paced film that works best. However, unusually for a film of this kind, it has another element in it which is far from being subsidiary. Harry Turner had at the age of eighteen seen service in Afghanistan having chosen to enlist and what he saw and experienced had resulted in PTSD – indeed, as a consequence of that and of the depression involved, he had even made one attempt at suicide while in Britain before setting out for Peru in the hope of starting his life afresh. The publicity for Wildcat might lead you to suppose that, however bad the trauma had been, working with Keanu and earlier with Khan (also an ocelot but one that did not survive) became an experience which would restore his proper state of mind. Ultimately, it may well have helped, but it could well be that the filmmakers had not anticipated the extent to which stress in the job would continue to keep Harry in a state that could be described as mentally unstable.

The result of this is that, while Wildcat presents itself essentially as a film about training an animal to survive, much of the footage is about Harry’s mental state as a result of his war experience. That drama involving not just his frequently depressed state but also his need to cut himself to feel pain as a measure to counter panic attacks emerges as no less central and it is another factor in this film getting a 15 certificate. Clearly Harry was willing to be very frank about his situation (the film never seems intrusive) but it also played a part in affecting the intimate relationship that he had developed with Samantha, an aspect touched on but not perhaps fully elaborated. In consequence we have a film that is trying to do two things at once but, apart from what feels like an unnecessarily extended coda, it handles this well in the circumstances but still without making the balance feel entirely natural.

However, even if the contrasted elements are sometimes at odds with one another, Wildcat contains animal footage which is of exceptional quality and, even if the personal issues fit in less than perfectly, the film as a whole should assuredly please audiences who feel drawn to it and are ready to accept the mixture inherent in the tale being told.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring: Harry Turner, Samantha Zwicker, Colette Turner, Mark Turner, Jayden Turner.

Dir Melissa Lesh and Trevor Beck Frost, Pro Melissa Lesh, Trevor Beck Frost, Alysa Nahmias and Joshua Altman, Ph Trevor Beck Frost, Melissa Lesh and Harry Turner, Ed Melissa Lesh, Joshua Altman, David Zieff and Ben Gold, Music Patrick Jonsson.

Emerging Earth Films/Harmonium Pictures/Unbound Films/AJNA Films/30WEST-Dogwoof/Amazon Studios.
106 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 21 December 2022. UK Rel: 23 December 2022. Cert. 15.