Release Date:  November 29, 2005
Rating:  G
Genre:   Documentary
Run Time:  85 min.
Director:    Luc Jacquet
Actors:   Morgan Freeman (narrator)

It is the coldest, windiest, driest continent on earth.  With the exception of one stalwart animal, during the winter it has no other inhabitants.  But every year, that indomitable creature makes a tedious journey, along with thousands of cohorts, to engage in an inexplicable – and deadly – ritual.  A ritual of life.

From the novice French director Luc Jacquet comes a captivating documentary, appropriate for the entire family, about the annual mating ritual of the Emperor penguin in Antarctica.  Jacquet’s crew teamed up with the French Polar Institute and spent an incredible 13 months in the South Pole, filming these strange and wonderful creatures using the ultra-expensive super 16 mm film.  Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the result is both magnificent and moving.

The Emperor penguin is the largest of the 17 species of penguins.  It spends its life on the ice-bound shelf of Antarctica, in the Southern Hemisphere.  Every winter, it travels even further south, away from predators, to procreate.  The journey across the tundra, which is made on foot and sometimes, on the penguin’s belly, is long and arduous.  The penguins follow one another in a line which can be seen for miles on end.  Even with the protection of each other, however, some die.  But the biggest danger lies ahead.

First, each penguin must find a mate.  They are monogamous creatures – at least for the nine months that it takes them to reproduce.  Jacquet portrays their pairing as very romantic with the birds nuzzling one another.  This and other anthropomorphic projections – or placing of human emotions onto animals –  may not be grounded in science, but they certainly make for good cinema. 

After mating, the female lays her egg.  She gives birth, then balances it on her feet, keeping it warm – and safe from the deadly ice – beneath a furry incubating pocket.  After several practice runs with her mate, she transfers the egg to him.  In the sub-zero temperatures, it takes mere seconds for the egg to freeze, should it touch the ground.  Many eggs do drop, and it is a pitiful sight to see the parents gazing at their frozen egg, as if grieving the loss.

More couples than not are successful, however, and so, in a curious role reversal, the male takes the egg under his care.  He will incubate it for the next two months, while the mother returns to the sea to eat.  During this time, temperatures drop to as low as -70 degrees Farenheit.  The wind blows 100 to 150 miles per hour, making it feel as cold as -150 degrees Farenheit.  To keep themselves warm, the males huddle together, taking turns inside the group to keep warm while the others brace themselves against the cold.  All the while, they continue to balance their eggs on their feet.