This pic: Samburu women entranced by a film screening in Kasipo, Samburu
By the time I arrive, it’s pitch-dark, with a sliver of moon and no electric lights for miles. Rounding a dry riverbed, I’m struck by an unexpected sight: a vast movie screen illuminating the faces of a Samburu audience – children cross-legged in front, mothers nursing babies, and warriors in the back. A caravan of camels passes by, their wooden bells tocking gently. It feels as if a London West End cinema has fallen from the sky into this remote stretch of northern Kenya.
This is the work of The Elephant Queen Outreach, a, which follows Athena, a matriarch elephant, leading her family on a journey in search of water. Although the film was a global hit, the filmmakers, Victoria Stone, Mark Deeble and Etienne Oliff, worried that those living at the frontline of human-wildlife interaction, like the Samburu, might never see it. So, they designed a pink, 4x4 live-aboard lorry, assembled an extraordinary team, packed an inflatable screen, puppets, and actors into the lorry and embarked on a nationwide tour, travelling to remote communities in Kenya to bring the film and a play that provokes debate on living with elephants.