She’s a 40-year-old longtime Parisian, with an unruly mop of red hair and soulful, close-set dark brown eyes. Nénette is introspective, perhaps melancholic, but beloved by those who visit her daily. After “having worn out three husbands” and given birth to four children, she’s convalescing from major surgery, and looks forward to life’s simple pleasures, like tea and yogurt at 4:30 each afternoon. Nénette is an orangutan in the famed Jardin des Plantes Exotiques zoo, and acclaimed documentarian Nicolas Philibert (TO BE AND TO HAVE) captures her day-to-day routine in this charming, poignant and wonderfully funny portrait. She’s one of our closest relations — the one with an enviable chunk of Paris real estate to call her own.
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