Elephant Mother review – sensitive animal documentary with a happy ending

‘Have you ever had death threats?”, asks a voice behind from the camera. The question makes Thai conservationist Lek Chailert chuckle. “Many times. All the time!” Chailert is a tiny dynamo of a woman who has devoted her life to rescuing elephants exploited by the Thai tourist industry and illegal logging. With any luck, this documentary will find its way on to Netflix and reach a global audience, with the result that anyone planning to visit Thailand will cross an elephant ride off their bucket list.

We meet Chailert at her elephant sanctuary Elephant Nature Park, home to more than 100 rescues. Inevitably, Chailert has been called the elephant whisperer, and you can see why, watching her march along, a little line of elephants trooping behind. Chailert is funny and playful, a real character; in one scene she snuggles down with a snoozing elephant, its snoring sounds like the world’s loudest hairdryer. The elephants often arrive at the park malnourished, emaciated, overworked and stressed; “Like zombies,” she says.

Sensibly, this documentary doesn’t dwell for too long on the graphic details of how elephants are mistreated in captivity. The film-makers show us pictures of elephants with chunks of flesh gouged out of their necks by the little pickaxes used by their handlers. The process of taming these proud beasts is called “the crush” – as in crushing their spirit, which says it all.

Chailert’s compassion and grit seem to genuinely change hearts and minds. Midway through making this film, Covid-19 hit and the collapse in tourism devastated the elephant industry; Chailert got to work, ferrying food to nearby elephant tourist parks, feeding the animals and humans. One of those parks, a place previously popular for tourists to watch elephants ride bikes, spin hula hoops and stand on two legs, is owned by a man called Uncle Eddie. In the past he said he hated Chailert, but we watch him become a total convert to her ethical tourism. A credit at the end of the film explains that when Uncle Eddie died in 2022, he left his herd to be cared for by the Save Elephant Foundation. A happy ending for some of Thailand’s elephants, at least.

• Elephant Mother is at Bertha DocHouse, London from 2 August.