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Published: 18 August, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

In the Gerald Durrell book, A Zoo In My Luggage, the author talks of how he used to take a chimpanzee called George for rides in a motorcycle sidecar through the winding country lanes of Hampshire.

Durrell writes of how George’s memory was such that even if they hadn’t traversed one particular route for months, he would remember well in advance a certain petrol station down a small road where the attendant, thrilled to see a chimp having a spin, would give him huge bags of peanuts.

This wonderful passage springs to mind while watching Project Nim, a very thoughtful and moving account by Man On Wire director James Marsh, about a science project to raise a chimp, Nim, as a human child to investigate how close we are to our simian cousins.

The boffins involved wanted to discover if chimps had the same language ability as humans to communicate with one another, and drawing on incredible archive footage and lots of interviews with those involved, this is an eye-opening and philosophically challenging look at a ground-breaking piece of research. You can’t help but be moved by Nim’s fate.

• Meanwhile, look out for the Islington-based Teepee film festival, which takes place on Saturday, August 27. It features a host of films made by borough film-makers based on stories from the area and is to be held at Islington’s Screen on the Green. More details next week.