【明報專訊】My Octopus Teacher, a Netflix documentary about an oddball friendship between man and octopus, took home an Oscar this year. Among the doubts surrounding its making, which to some was a tad too professional to pass off as real-time shots, The Harvard Gazette raised a question in its interview of scholars that is perhaps most worth contemplating: was it a mere illusion created by anthropomorphism? In less academic terms, Megan Mueller, Co-director of the Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction, reminded us that we are constantly ''projecting our human behaviours'' onto animals. While current research cannot ascertain whether the theory applies to the starring octopus and diver, this is nevertheless a fresh perspective that breaks away from what the film frames the inter-species spark to be: an extraordinary reaffirmation of mankind's 'innate' bond with nature. But that's not saying I wasn't moved by the blooming affection in the kelp forest dancing beneath the sea. I was unabashedly part of the kitsch that Milan Kundera's Sabina so despises. ̷̷ Text: Staff Reporter ̷