FILM

UK 2011 99 mins Dir: James Marsh

Three years on from the Oscar-winning 'Man on Wire', British director James Marsh has come up with another astonishing documentary. This scrupulously non-partisan account of human folly and animal exploitation unfolds over the 26-year lifespan of one 'Nim Chimpsky' - a chimpanzee who was snatched from his tranquilised mother at birth back in 1973 and then became the subject of a deeply flawed 'Nature versus Nurture' experiment that was very much of its time. Many of the human participants were well-meaning hippy academics. And yet only one - a laidback Grateful Dead fan who shared spliffs with the little hairy fella - appears to have improved the chimp's life in any meaningful way. Conclusions about the ethics of research on animals and the dubious assumptions and motivations of those involved are left for the viewer to draw. What Marsh does so brilliantly is to fashion Nim's story into a gripping narrative using archive footage, new interviews and the occasional dramatic reconstruction. And just when you think the film has reached its sorry end, you realise that there's another 40 minutes of unexpected twists and turns to come.

The experiment was initiated by Colombia University Behavioural Psychologist Professor Herbert Terrace - then a middle-aged gent with a penchant for employing attractive young female assistants. His plan was to see whether a chimp raised in isolation from other members of its species could be taught to communicate using sign language. So Nim was whisked off initially to New York to join the large family of his human "surrogate mother". But as he got older, his inner chimp began to assert itself and he eventually wound up in a cage back at the grim Oklahoma compound where he was born. When that went bankrupt, all the primates were sold off for medical experiments.

You'll have to see the film to find out what happened next. Suffice it to say that the focus is as much on human foibles and jealousies as it is on the unfortunate Nim. Perhaps unexpectedly, an animal rights activist does more harm than good, and it's left to the boss of the vivisection lab to observe that: "There's no way to carry out research on animals and for it to be humane. Once you put them in a cage, it's all downhill from then on…" (Robin Askew)

website www.project-nim.com/

Opens: August 12

Copyright Robin Askew 2011