The Penguin Lessons

Steve Coogan stars in this warm, witty comedy drama from The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo, based on Tom Michell’s bestselling memoir. 

Buenos Aires, 1976: Tom (Coogan) arrives to begin teaching at a prestigious boarding school. But Argentina’s politics are fraught, and despite the headmaster’s (Jonathan Pryce) instructions to keep calm and carry on, the school shuts after the eventual coup d’état. Visiting Uruguay, Tom rescues a penguin after an oil spill and after sneaking it back to Argentina, begins a strange and beautiful friendship with the bird that sees it become an unwitting agent of change for Tom and eventually, the whole school.