The Elephant Queen

Last updated

The Elephant Queen
The Elephant Queen.jpg
Directed by
  • Victoria Stone
  • Mark Deeble
Produced byLucinda Englehart
Narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor
Music by Alex Heffes
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 8 September 2018 (2018-09-08)(TIFF)
  • 1 November 2019 (2019-11-01)(Apple TV+)
Running time
96 minutes [1]
Countries
  • United States
  • Kenya

The Elephant Queen is a 2018 documentary film directed by Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble, and narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor. It tells the journey of a family of elephants in the African savannah when they are forced to leave their waterhole. The film was produced by Lucinda Englehart under the banner of Deeble & Stone.

Contents

At the 2019 Critics' Choice Movie Awards, The Elephant Queen was nominated for Best Science/Nature Documentary and Best Narration.

Plot

Athena, a 50-year-old mother elephant, is matriarch of a herd of adult females and male and female juveniles, which includes mother Mala, older daughter Milli, and newborn Mimi. The elephants live in a bucolic area referred to as The Kingdom, with dotted waterholes. The waterholes are also home to bullfrogs, chameleons, dung beetles, killifish, and terrapins. In The Elephant Queen, the animals are characters with personalities who live in symbiotic harmony. A drought forces the herd to leave their environment and travel far away to a savanna. But they must eat and drink plenty to endure 200 miles (320 km) until the next waterhole. Matriarch Athena has the hard decision to wait for Mimi to get stronger for the long trip, or to voyage on towards her and her family’s safety. [2]

Cast

English actor Chiwetel Ejiofor narrates [3] the journey of the elephant family. [4]

Production

Directors Deeble and Stone stated that they never filmed elephants before as main subjects. [5] In 2009, a drought hit Amboseli National Park, Kenya, which "opened their eyes" to tell the elephants' story. [5] While talking about their immersive experience of capturing African elephants' life, the duo said: [6]

We were looking for a charismatic female elephant matriarch because it's very much a female leadership story, and we were looking for the ideal elephant for a long time.

Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble, Deadline Hollywood

The duo followed the elephant Athena and her herd for over four years in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. [6] [7]

Release

On 8 September 2018, The Elephant Queen premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. [8] The film would later screen at the BFI London Film Festival, [9] Sundance Film Festival, [10] Montclair Film Festival [11] and Sydney Film Festival. [12] The Elephant Queen opened in theatres on 18 October 2019 as a pilot to a deal between A24 and Apple, where A24 would distribute films through a limited release in US theaters before becoming Apple TV+ exclusives. [13] That same day, they released The Lighthouse , hence priority at A24 shifted to that film, and a small release was made for The Elephant Queen with little to no marketing.[ citation needed ] The film was made available for streaming on Apple TV+ on 1 November 2019. [13] It later also had its one-time linear premiere in its country of production, on Citizen TV in parts of sub-Saharan Africa on 12 April 2020. Thusly, rendering it non-exclusive in those countries.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Informative, compassionate, and beautifully filmed, The Elephant Queen should satisfy nature documentary lovers of all ages." [14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". [15]

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "delivers a powerful reminder that the magnificent subjects of this documentary [...] are faced with serious dangers both natural and man-made". [2] Sandie Angulo Chen of Common Sense Media wrote, "Gorgeously shot, fabulously narrated, and surprisingly poignant, this documentary is an inspiring tribute to the power of motherhood and community on the African savanna". [16] Scott Tobias of Variety magazine wrote, "There's a gap between the story Stone and Deeble want to tell about love and family, and the much grimmer story nature itself is telling, in unsentimental terms. In the end, it's hard to reconcile the two". [17] Chelsea Phillips-Carr of Point of View wrote, "The documentary is without a doubt charming, but it is also too innocuous for its subject matter". [18]

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryResultRef(s).
2019 Cinema for Peace Awards International Green Film AwardWon [19]
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Best Science/Nature DocumentaryNominated [20]
Best NarrationNominated
2020 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Narrator Nominated [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiwetel Ejiofor</span> British actor (born 1977)

Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor is a British actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award, with nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.

<i>Kinky Boots</i> (film) 2005 British comedy-drama film

Kinky Boots is a 2005 British comedy-drama film directed by Julian Jarrold and written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth. Nominated at the 64th Golden Globe Awards, it is based on a true story. The film tells of struggling shoe factory owner Charlie, who forms an unlikely partnership with Lola, a drag queen, to save the business. Charlie develops a plan to produce custom footwear for drag queens, rather than the men's dress shoes that his firm is known for, alienating many in the process.

<i>Endgame</i> (2009 film) 2009 British film

Endgame is a 2009 British film directed by Pete Travis from a script by Paula Milne, based upon the book The Fall of Apartheid by Robert Harvey. The film is produced by Daybreak Pictures and reunites Travis with Vantage Point actor William Hurt. It also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jonny Lee Miller and Mark Strong. The film dramatises the final days of apartheid in South Africa. It was filmed at locations in Reading in England and Cape Town, South Africa in the first half of 2008 and was completed in December that year.

<i>12 Years a Slave</i> (film) 2013 film directed by Steve McQueen

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Steve McQueen from a screenplay by John Ridley, based on the 1853 slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, an African American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841 and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The first scholarly edition of David Wilson's version of Northup's story was co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon.

<i>Mary Magdalene</i> (2018 film) 2018 film by Garth Davis

Mary Magdalene is a 2018 biblical drama film about the woman of the same name, written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett and directed by Garth Davis. It stars Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Tahar Rahim.

<i>Come Sunday</i> (film) 2018 film by Joshua Marston

Come Sunday is a 2018 American drama film directed by Joshua Marston and written by Marcus Hinchey, based on "Heretics", a 2005 episode of the radio show This American Life. It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Carlton Pearson, an evangelist minister who was ostracized by his church and excommunicated for preaching that there is no Hell. Jason Segel, Condola Rashad, Lakeith Stanfield, Stacey Sargeant, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Danny Glover, and Martin Sheen also star.

<i>Hereditary</i> (film) 2018 horror film directed by Ari Aster

Hereditary is a 2018 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Ari Aster in his feature directorial debut. Starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, and Gabriel Byrne, the film follows a grieving family tormented by a demonic entity after the death of their secretive grandmother.

<i>Share</i> (2019 film) 2019 American film

Share is a 2019 coming-of-age drama film, written and directed by Pippa Bianco, based upon Bianco's short film of the same name. It stars Rhianne Barreto, Charlie Plummer, Poorna Jagannathan, J. C. Mackenzie, Nicholas Galitzine, and Lovie Simone.

The 2019 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 24 to February 3, 2019. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 28, 2018.

<i>Hala</i> (film) 2019 film

Hala is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Minhal Baig. The film was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and was released in a limited theatrical release on November 22, 2019, followed by digital streaming on December 6, 2019, by Apple TV+. The film received generally positive reviews. It is based on a previous short film by Baig made in 2016 by the same name.

<i>The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind</i> 2019 film

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a 2019 drama film written, directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor in his feature directorial debut. The film is based on the memoir of the same name by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. It was screened in the Premieres section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and began streaming in most territories on Netflix on 1 March 2019. It was selected as the British entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. It received widely positive reviews with praise going to Ejiofor's direction and the acting.

<i>Elephant</i> (2020 film) 2020 American nature documentary film about elephants

Elephant is a 2020 American nature documentary film about elephants directed by Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz and narrated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. It is the fifteenth nature documentary to be released under the Disneynature label. The film was released alongside Dolphin Reef as a Disney+ exclusive on April 3, 2020.

<i>Boys State</i> (film) 2020 documentary film directed by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine

Boys State is a 2020 American documentary film directed and produced by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. It follows a thousand teenage boys attending Boys State in Texas, coming to build a representative government from the ground up.

<i>Locked Down</i> (film) 2021 film by Doug Liman

Locked Down is a 2021 romantic comedy heist film directed by Doug Liman and written by Steven Knight. The film stars Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, with Stephen Merchant, Mindy Kaling, Lucy Boynton, Mark Gatiss, Claes Bang, Ben Stiller, and Ben Kingsley in supporting roles.

<i>The Pod Generation</i> 2023 film by Sophie Barthes

The Pod Generation is a 2023 science fiction romantic comedy film written and directed by Sophie Barthes.

Rob Peace is a 2024 American biographical drama film written and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor and starring Jay Will, Mary J. Blige, and Ejiofor himself. It is based on the 2014 biography The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs.

<i>Stephen Curry: Underrated</i> 2023 documentary by Peter Nicks

Stephen Curry: Underrated is a 2023 American sports documentary film about basketball player Stephen Curry. The film was directed by Peter Nicks, and it premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival before being released in theaters and on Apple TV+ on July 21, 2023.

Jay Will is an American actor, rapper and musician.

References

  1. Jaworowski, Ken (17 October 2019). "'The Elephant Queen' Review: Magnificent Images of Majestic Animals". The New York Times . Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 "'The Elephant Queen': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  3. "Review: 'The Elephant Queen' documentary delivers drama and emotion on African savanna". Los Angeles Times. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  4. Mann, Randi (7 October 2019). "Watch AppleTV+'s 'The Elephant Queen' Trailer, The Ultimate Family Film". ET Canada. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  5. 1 2 "The AFI DOCS Interview: THE ELEPHANT QUEEN With Directors Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone | American Film Institute". Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  6. 1 2 N'Duka, Amanda (28 January 2019). "'The Elephant Queen' Filmmakers on Long Search For "The Ideal Elephant" – Sundance Studio". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  7. "The Elephant Queen: An Intimate Story About The Most Majestic Animals In Africa". nationalparkstraveler.org. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  8. Alcinii, Daniele (7 September 2018). "TIFF '18 Exclusive clip: "The Elephant Queen"". RealScreen. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  9. "The Elephant Queen". BFI London Film Festival. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  10. Roka, Les (28 January 2019). "Sundance 2019: The Elephant Queen achieves gold standard in wildlife documentary genre | The Utah Review". Archived from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  11. "The Elephant Queen | Montclair Film". montclairfilm.org. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  12. "The Elephant Queen". Sydney Film Festival. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  13. 1 2 Donnelly, Matt (27 September 2019). "Apple Sets Theatrical Release Dates for Original Films 'The Banker,' 'Hala' and 'The Elephant Queen' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  14. "The Elephant Queen (2018)", Rotten Tomatoes , Fandango, archived from the original on 16 October 2019, retrieved 30 October 2021
  15. The Elephant Queen, archived from the original on 9 November 2019, retrieved 9 November 2019
  16. "The Elephant Queen – Movie Review". Common Sense Media . 15 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  17. Tobias, Scott (12 September 2018). "Toronto Film Review: 'The Elephant Queen'". Variety . Archived from the original on 16 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  18. "TIFF Review: 'The Elephant Queen'". Point of View . 14 September 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  19. "Cinema for Peace Gala Nominations 2019". Cinema for Peace .
  20. "Critics' Choice Documentary Awards". Critics' Choice Awards. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  21. "The Elephant Queen". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences . Retrieved 28 July 2020.