MAYBE ELEPHANTS

MAYBE ELEPHANTS

16 Min | Torill Kove | Canada, Sweden

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Torill Kove narrates the story of her formative teenage years growing up in a loving family who must suddenly navigate the strong pull of individual needs. The parents and three sisters swap a safe and predictable life in Norway with the fresh unknowns of vibrant 1970s Nairobi, Kenya. Featuring the return cast of Me and My Moulton, Maybe Elephants explores the many ripples flowing from a mother’s restlessness, and how this impacts her family.

Bursting with wit, a joyful colour palette and an energetic soundscape, Maybe Elephants is a vivid homage to Kove’s time spent immersed in Nairobi’s bustling culture. The animated short wraps rich nostalgia around memories of eventful family trips, timeless teen antics and those inevitable moments of adolescent epiphany. Reframing a complex upbringing, Maybe Elephants illustrates that within an imperfect memory lies a perfect, if subjective, truth.

#adolescence #familydynamics #nostalgia #Nairobi

animation

fiction

Director

Torill Kove

Torill Kove is a Norwegian-born filmmaker and animator living in Canada. Three of her films (including My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts and Me and My Moulton) have been nominated for Academy Awards®, with The Danish Poet, narrated by Liv Ullmann, winning the coveted golden statue in 2007.

Kove’s films are known for her expressive designs and playful and poignant autobiographical themes. In her latest film, Maybe Elephants (2024), Kove, at long last, faces her fear of big-eared mammals.