Ottawa – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE: Maybe Elephants is a playful and loving autobiographical film by Montreal-based animator Torill Kove, co-produced by Mikrofilm (Norway) and the NFB. Winner of the Academy Award for The Danish Poet, Torill narrates the story of her formative teenage years when her parents and sisters swap a safe and predictable life in Norway with the fresh unknowns of vibrant 1970s Nairobi, Kenya.
Maybe Elephants by Torill Kove (Mikrofilm/NFB, 16 min 43 s)
Producers: Lise Fearnley (Mikrofilm), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Tonje Skar Reiersen (Mikrofilm)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/maybe-elephants
- In the ’70s, three rebellious teenage daughters, a restless mother, a father struggling with potatoes, and maybe some elephants, find themselves in bustling Nairobi—and the family will never be the same.
- Narrated by Torill Kove, Maybe Elephants features the return cast of her Oscar-nominated short Me and My Moulton. The film wraps rich nostalgia around memories of eventful family trips, timeless teen antics and those inevitable moments of adolescent epiphany—bursting with wit, a joyful colour palette and an energetic soundscape.
- Maybe Elephants was made with the collaboration of several Kenyan Canadians who played the roles of Kenyan characters and with whom Kove consulted on Swahili language and Kenyan culture.
- Torill Kove is a Norwegian-born filmmaker and animator living in Canada. Three of her films (includingMy 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.