Skwigly.com presents Animation One-To-Ones featuring Ben Mitchell in conversation with Torill Kove, director of the National Film Board of Canada/Mikrofilm short film Maybe Elephants.

Hailing from Norway and presently based in Canada, Torill has created such films as the Oscar-winning The Danish Poet and the Oscar nominated My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts and Me and My Moulton. Her latest film Maybe Elephants is rooted in family, memory and the fallible nature of both, telling the story of three sisters whose lives are uprooted when their parents relocate them from Norway to Nairobi.

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.

The film will screen at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the Short Films in Competition – Official 2 programme.

Interview conducted by Ben Mitchell
Produced, edited and presented by Ben Mitchell