From the director of 'The Full Monty', the captivating true story of the unlikely bond between an English teacher and a penguin. The Penguin Lessons is a 2024 comedy-drama film directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce. It is based on the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, a British teacher who taught at a boys' boarding school in Argentina in the 1970s, with the script adapted by Jeff Pope. After Michell rescued a penguin which he found soaked with oil on a beach in the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este, it kept following him, so he took it back to the school, where it became a popular pet. The film premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival before being released in cinemas in the US and UK and on 28 March and 18 April 2025 respectively.