DO ELEPHANTS PRAY?

Beware of what you wish for, say the Chinese, because you might get it. But they failed to tell thirtysomething ad exec Callum Cutter and, wishing his time away, he quickly finds himself on a most mysterious journey.

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Callum, played by the film’s scriptwriter, Jonnie Hurn, is one of life’s disenchanted ad execs, a less than high achiever who has begun to sense that selling things to unsuspecting mugs is as much a waste of life as, well, selling things to unsuspecting mugs.

"I want more", he cries out. "More" And, presto, he has it, in the form of the free-spirited French woman Malika (Julie Dray, above), who appears out of nowhere, starts to question everything Callum believes in and relies upon and, even more scary, lures him away to a remote region of France.

One day it is all graphs and pie charts, the next he is roughing it in an uncharted forest.

For such places do exist in modern France. Le pays is not all steak frites.

And this particular forest, in the Brittany, covers 18,000 acres, far more than enough space to get lost in, although merely the remnants of the forest that covered most of the region in the first centuries A.D.

Indeed today the forest is an important site for numerous witches, both black & white, & druid cult followers.

But Malika has not taken Callum there to fiddle with any cauldrons, let alone some routine R&R or naturalist hanky panky.

Instead she subjects Callum to a series of trials that tease his mind and taunt his perception of the world, culminating in all hell breaking loose at the misleadingly named Lake of No Return.

No Return! No way! Instead, at this lake Callum not only taps into his inner self, which has been missing, but finds how to sell and enjoy selling his previously unsellable products.

Directed by Paul Hills, Do Elephants Pray? is a logical follow up to his 1996 autobiographical coming-of-age tale, Boston Kickout.

That was youth. This is a mature story of growing up, displaying insights and sleek camera work picked up during 10 years working in the commercials world himself.

As for the elephant, it is a metaphor rather than a reality. Even French forests have their limitations.

Although you may catch a glimpse of it here

Photos are by Steve Norris.

Posted April 17, 2008.