‘A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough’ is Moving and Contemplative
In 1978, David Attenborough was filming the series Life on Earth in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains. What was supposed to be a standard scene about the evolution of opposable thumbs became one of the most memorable nature documentary moments. As Attenborough spoke his lines in the rainforest, a 3-year-old gorilla named Pablo approached him and lay on top of him. It is impossible to watch that footage without some reaction—be it laughter, shock or fear. Nearly 50 years later, Attenborough narrates the story of a pivotal arc in a group of gorillas that this 3-year-old Pablo led as an adult.
In A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough, the Pablo Group, once the largest known group in the mountains, is now at a crossroads. The dominant male, Gicurasi, is getting older and weaker, while the younger Ubwuzu vies for the top spot in the group. What follows is a tale of succession and drama that reads more like an HBO miniseries than a nature documentary.
