The Elephant Whisperers

The Elephant Whisperers Movie Details:

The Elephant Whisperers Movie Cast & Characters:

• Bellie
• Bomman

Storyline:

The Elephant Whisperers tells the story of an indigenous couple named Bomman and Bellie who are entrusted with an orphaned baby Indian elephant named Raghu. They take great pains to ensure that the fragile, injured infant survives and grows to be a healthy juvenile. A strong bond develops between the couple and the elephant. They adopt another elephant Ammukutty and eventually have to give up Raghu. Set in the Mudumalai National Park in the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states of India, the documentary also highlights the location’s natural beauty. It explores the life of the tribal people in harmony with nature.

The film is not just a heart-touching story of a bond between animals and humans and co-existence but also showcases Indian culture and tradition of environment conservation.

About The Elephant Whisperers Movie:

The Elephant Whisperers is a documentary film directed by documentary filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves. The documentary is about the bond that develops between a couple and an orphaned baby elephant, Raghu, who was entrusted to their care.

The documentary follows the story of Bomman and Bellie, elephant caretakers belonging to the Kattunayakan tribe. Director Kartiki Gonsalves stated, “I met Raghu when he was exactly three months old,” she added, “I spent about a year and a half with him when he was a tiny baby before this became a documentary.”

The team spent nearly five years living the ongoing story of these caregivers and their baby elephant, working in a verite mode of letting the daily life and events of Bomman and Bellie tell the story of the life of an orphaned baby elephant (and his sudden unlikely sister, Amu!).

Our intention in the process of documenting the journey of the protagonists was to create a fully immersive experience of the traditional elephant caregiver mahouts of southern India, in a way that honours the lifestyle and traditions of the Kattunayakan people, an ancient tribal community that Bomman and Bellie belong to who have been living with elephants for centuries.

The film had its world premiere on 9 November 2022 at Doc NYC Film Festival, a film festival for documentaries in the United States.

The film was released by Netflix globally on 8 December 2022 for streaming. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards, making it the first Indian film to win an Academy Award at the Oscars.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes website, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.