Last of the Right Whales | Time is running out ★★★½

Since 2017, the population of right whales has dropped by 10% in the North Atlantic. Huge cetaceans die too often from their unequal cohabitation with humans. In the hope of saving them, a small group of scientists, ecologists and even fishermen pool their knowledge.

Andre Duchesne
The Press

At the end of the documentary The Last Right Whales, the names of all those who have died in the North Atlantic since 2017 are written on the screen. There are 34 of them. This is a very bleak picture.

Some, no doubt, will see in this an attempt at manipulation. Something that brings tears. Like the music that is sometimes a little too strong and accompanies the strong images of this film. From our point of view, we would speak more, to borrow an expression dating back to the 1960s, of cinema truth.

Truth cinema. Brilliant cinema, hard-hitting, disturbing, but also, often even, touching. It is true that there are rather atrocious images of dead right whales in this film. But there are also very beautiful and even relaxing shots of these cetaceans moving carefree in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as well as on the high seas.

And above all, there is the exposure of a problem without pointing too much finger at possible culprits. Without too much fla-fla, the documentary explains the situation and evokes the solutions, or at least the steps to find them.

The problem ? The whales have a hard time cohabiting with the boats plying the waters of the North Atlantic. Cases of collisions, like those of cetaceans caught in fishing nets, are numerous. Some images presented here are very eloquent on this subject.

The solutions ? They are discussed within a motley group of photographers, biologists, business people and even fishermen, who are trying new techniques to leave less waste in the oceans.

A number speaks for itself: some 63 tonnes of fishing materials were removed from Canadian waters on the Atlantic side in 2020 alone.

In the introduction, it is said that the fate of whales is a metaphor for the sea. Their decline refers to that of the oceans. Time is running out to act.

The Last Right Whales is not a cute movie or a catchy movie. It’s a fair movie.

Presented in theaters in the original English version with French subtitles.

Documentary

Last of the Right Whales (v.f.: The Last Right Whales)

Nadine Pequeneza

With Nick Hawkins, Tom Cheney and Martin Noel

1:32

★★★½