The Penguin Lessons
Monday 4 August 2025
- Language: English and Spanish with Open Captions
- Duration: 111 mins
| Monday 4 August
8pm |
Book Now |
Accessible / wheelchair seats must be booked through Box Office on 01 272 4030.
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Starring: Steve Coogan, Bjorn Gustafsson, David Herrero
Argentina, 1976. Disillusioned schoolteacher Tom Michell (Steve Coogan) arrives in Buenos Aires to teach at a prestigious all-boys school. He was expecting an easy ride-but with the city spiralling into crisis and violence, the students remain unteachable. During a weekend trip to Uruguay, Tom rescues a penguin trapped in oil from a spill on a nearby beach. Sneaking it back to Argentina, the penguin’s unique presence becomes an integral part of the school community and sparks a new enthusiasm in both Tom and his young charges. From director Peter Cattaneo (Military Wives, The Full Monty), this heartwarming film, based on a memoir of the same name, shows how even the most unlikely connections can affect profound change and self-discovery.
‘It emerges as an engaging delight from start to finish...The Penguin Lessons also proves unexpectedly moving, its emotional manipulations fully forgivable.’
- Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
‘Despite the danger of G-rated sentimentality, which everyone involved heroically avoids, The Penguin Lessons is a work of surprising depth and subtle, irresistible impact.’
Rex Reed, Observer
‘“...this is still a wildly enjoyable film. The Penguin Lessons undertakes a near impossible task: melding the inescapable violence and atrocities of war with feelgood British humour. Beneath the warmth, quips, and well-timed physical comedy, bleaker themes quietly fester’
Gemma Creagh, Film Ireland
