Nennette Review

• 30th May 2011

It would take a creative team a considerable amount of dedication to make a purely bad film about a monkey. Monkeys are naturally camera friendly with all the antics and mischief they get up to; they can keep your undivided attention for minutes just watching them attempting to extract a banana from a sealed tub. Nenette really falls under the category of ‘naturally interesting’. It’s quite watchable, but this has little to do with the team behind it who’ve unashamedly created a one-hour-twenty-minute ‘documentary’ using a single camera watching a single orang-utan, with only the observations of interested onlookers providing any context.

Nenette herself is something of a spectacle – 40years old with sagging everythings, she has a constant expression of “been there/done that” which a voice in the background assures us isn’t depression (apparently orang-utans don’t express themselves as much as chimps).  We learn how she was born in Borneo and has lived in the care of the world’s oldest zoo for some 37 years, how she recently underwent spinal surgery and how she’s mothered four babies with three “husbands”. Now, in the autumn years of her life with her brief stint in the spotlight behind her, Nenette seems to be neither here nor there about the visitors who constantly observe and analyse her every move.

Some of these observations are more worthwhile than the bulk of them, which rarely stray from the expected “which one’s Nenette?” or “look at her giant breasts” (although actually they are justifiably noteworthy). There’s an interesting little interaction between a mother and child (we assume), in which the child astutely points out that the orang-utans look just like men, “except they have more body hair”. One of the more informative excerpts comes from a fast talking tour guide (we assume!) who gives some cute examples of orang-utan behaviour. It’s just unfortunate none of these are captured on film.

Nenette is definitely not for Sunday afternoon watching. Whatever its director may think, it’s not for the masses and is a highly specialised documentary which is more along the lines of Big Brother than David Attenborough. Only those with the keenest eye will get the most out of this bizarre little addition to Nature Broadcasting.

Dani Singer