Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story | Telescope Film
Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story

Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story

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  • Thailand,
  • Cambodia,
  • United States
  • 2018
  • · 77m

Director Ashley Bell
Cast Ashley Bell, Lek Chailert
Genre Documentary

Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist Lek Chailert, embark on a daring 48-hour mission across Thailand to rescue a 70-year old captive blind Asian elephant and bring her to freedom.

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What are critics saying?

100

San Francisco Chronicle by G. Allen Johnson

Lek gives Love & Bananas humanity, but Bell’s personality and enthusiasm is contagious, inviting us into the film. We root right along with her.

70

Los Angeles Times by Kimber Myers

Love & Bananas works on two levels, spreading awareness about the plight of Asian elephants and the damage that tourist activities like elephant treks wreak, as well as documenting Noi Na's 500-mile journey and dramatic rescue.

70

The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

The film strongly argues against the use of elephants for such things as giving rides to tourists and performing in circuses. What gives those arguments their moral force is the animals themselves, demonstrating intelligence, sociability and emotion.

70

The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

This film is, in many respects, a plain picture, but also a cleareyed, direct, fat-free one that has something to say and says it affectingly.

70

Village Voice by Chris Packham

Noi Na’s subsequent acclimation to her new home in the refuge is hopeful, but Chailert’s bravery, sacrifice, and manifest love are the only redemption the film holds out for humans.