One elephant, two names, three empires — the 20th century's most unlikely passport.
From Germany to Italy, the United States to Île-de-France, Jumbo/Toto, Stories About an Elephant shadows the itinerary of a single forgotten animal, an African elephant doubly-named Jumbo/Toto. Jumbo, as he was called on German colonial ships,at the Amerikakai port of Hamburg, and in Carl Hagenbeck's zoos; Toto, as he'd come to be known with great fame in fascist Italy. An urban investigation and an adventure film, a ballet of flora and fauna and pavement and sea, Jumbo/Toto, Stories About an Elephant is a modern epic of the joy and pain of the 20th century set in what still remains strange and unknown: the 21st century, and the solitude of telling a story.
Direction
Pujol treats history like a crime scene and a dream.
Editing
Collage of zoo logs, ships, and silent streets.
Director
Noëlle Pujol
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Carl Hagenbeck pioneered the 'naturalistic' zoo cage — the same man who sold Jumbo to Mussolini's Italy.
Toto's Italian fame peaked in 1930s newsreels; his image was used to project imperial power even as his origins were erased.
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