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Do you recall the times that you’ve snuggled up with a duvet, a sofa, perhaps a snack  and watched an unabashed heck of a family tearjerker like Bambi, Kramer vs. Kramer or Stepmom? All of us have at some point. The primal call in the gruffest of adults to respond to children being messed around is undeniably strong. Nim Chimpsky, the adorable chimp named after the less hairily cute linguist Noam Chomsky, is the child at the centre of this unbelievable family drama. 

Nim was the subject of a linguistics study led by Herb Terrace, an academic from Columbia University. At two weeks old Nim was transferred from his ape family to a human family to see if he could grow up to refute Noam Chomsky’s thesis that only humans intrinsically have language and are ‘wired’ to develop it. 

Project Nim is made by James Marsh, who directed the widely acclaimed Man on Wire. On first glance, the film appears to have all the elements of schmaltz - a cute chimp, many mums and dads, the seventies etc. However, it is far from being like the Brady Bunch with a monkey and is a lot darker than its predecessor. As much as it is shocking, a subtle black comedy also courses through the film in its gaze on the humans who were in charge of looking after Nim. Marsh’s beautifully shot interviews show the mind-boggling characters pull back curtains on each other and display potent emotions. Jealousy, arrogance, possessiveness, seduction, love and hate play out between the humans whilst Nim grows into a troubled child in the background.

Stephanie LaFarge, Nim’s first mum, was a 36 yr old ex-lover of Herb Terrace, the cold lead researcher. Nim enters into a family of wealthy hippies and a creepy amount of breastfeeding and love. When Terrace worked out that a boundary-less hippy lifestyle was not the best for rigorous data collection, Nim comes under the care of radiant Laura Petito, a young neuroscientist. However, following an entanglement gone wrong between her and Terrace, Nim loses yet another mum. Others follow and leave as Nim’s frustration and frightening physical might grow in equal measure, until he meets Bob Ingersoll, an evolutionary scientist, whom he never bites once, and whose care actively carries on to date. 

Whilst it is clear that most view this as a failed experiment and question Nim’s use of language, the film communicates Nim’s personality, will, ability to express himself and his emotional confusion. Bob Ingersoll sees the interviewees in the film as representing and speaking for Nim [more in the DFG interview with Bob]. Along with this, the vast archive of home movies of Nim, and Marsh’s masterful reconstruction let the audience understand Nim’s expression and his story, with or without human language. 

Project Nim is released in cinemas on Friday 12th August. Read our interview with Bob Ingersoll here.

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