This historic black-and-white film raises the question: who is watching who in the zoo? Are the visitors watching the animals, or do the animals consider the visitors to be entertaining. In 1961, Dutch renowned filmmaker Bert Haanstra used the candid camera for the first time in the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam to film both the reactions of animal and man to each other.

A nice jazz soundtrack accompanies this observational documentary. People milling around watching the animals that are in turn watching them. People knit, they draw, they chat - as do the parrots. Monkeys, penguins, zebras and other species are just as unaware of the camera as the children and their parents. So expressions are recorded as natural as can be. How alike they sometimes are! Do humans differ from the big cats when cuddling? And there are similarities when considering eating habits it appears! And the domesticated tabby cat is attracted to its big brother to a level that could make the cat into a snack.

As the day moves along, the humans start to yawn, getting tired and fractious, while the animals seem oblivious to the fact that they are the ones in cages and not those bipeds. The score and the editing make this an opportunity to observe how the visual confrontation may entertain the humans and the animals alike. There's some humourous photography, a teeny bit of science and some sunshine before the sense of inevitability creeps in. Some have to go home, while some are already home. And a final answer to the question of who is watching whom is a matter for debate.

(Source: archive.org and imdb.com, both accessed on 02.10.2024)