Maybe Elephants
2024 · 17m · Norway / Canada
Directed by Torill Kove
Genres: animation, biography, coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender, whimsical
When their restless mother impulsively uproots the family from a small Norwegian town to 1970s Nairobi, three rebellious teenage sisters must navigate adolescence and the emotional distance of a mother struggling with her own "dark cloud." Oscar-shortlisted animator Torill Kove narrates this autobiographical story of family, displacement, and the unreliable nature of memory.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Sequel to Kove's Oscar-nominated Me and My Moulton, autobiographical Norway-to-1970s-Nairobi family memoir with Kove voicing herself — NFB+Mikrofilm production with consultation to handle the white-expat-in-Africa subject. Mature filmmaker doing mature work. Yes.
Torill Kove revisiting her Me and My Moulton territory with the family's move to 1970s Nairobi — voicing her own narration, consulting Kenyan-Canadian communities for the expat material — is a mature artist handling her own memory carefully. Seventeen minutes; an Oscar-shortlisted veteran's continued growth.
16:44, Torill Kove's autobiographical sequel to her Oscar-nominated 'Me and My Moulton' — first time she voices a character, recorded through Storyboard Pro at animatic, with active Kenyan-Canadian community consultation on the white-expat-in-Africa subject matter. NFB/Mikrofilm pedigree means craft is assured; the consultative production is the ethical detail.
Reviews
Audiences will feel her joys and wonder, and find a deep connection to her evocative storytelling.
Kove is neither judgmental nor resentful, she ironically reports from memories and feelings experienced in the past.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2024
- Toronto International Film Festival 2024