Doc/Fest - Sheffield

Herman Melvile’s timeless novel, Moby Dick or The Whale, still raises the hairs on the neck of our collective conscious even 157 years after it first was published in the UK. In this daring and unusual Arena production for BBC, the lore and legend of the novel is opened up to new interpretations by an exquisite examination of the novel’s mythical main character, the whale. Filmed everywhere from the writer’s hometown in the USA to the bowels of a natural history museum, the importance of the whale in western culture is revealed with intricate research and a heady passion behind the camera. Moby Dick is a helplessly engaging and beautifully produced re-think of the literal and cultural place of the world’s greatest mammal, and one of the world’s greatest reads and is a must see for all Moby Dick devotees. And if you haven’t read it, brace yourself.