synopsis

ELEPHANT GIRL, by Simon Grome

Writer's Guild of America registration # 937403

Copyright Simon Grome 2004-2006

Elephant Girl is a contemporary view of a traditional rural life contrasted by the opportunities available to a poor country girl in an international city, as seen through the eyes of a young Kue woman and her long lost elephant. The emotional tale of one woman's coming of age and her relationship with her elephant takes us from the rural pastures of an elephant herder's village in NorthEast Thailand to Bangkok 's edgy nightlife entertainment industry.

Beyond the young woman's compelling search for redemption for her and her abused elephant, the story draws forth the issues of poverty and tourism that currently challenge Thailand , de-constructing misconceptions drawn from a western world's prurient gaze into an Asian culture's morality.

From an early age, Ari develops a close bond with her elephant Teaak. With changing values, the elephant's significance in the rural community has diminished, and she is sold and taken to the city. When Ari reaches womanhood she finds herself dispatched to the same city in search of work to sustain the family coffers.

Swiftly entrenched into the vagaries of the seedy nightlife entertainment scene, Ari is befriended by Noi, a veteran bar girl who promises to introduce her to the independence afforded by the internet, where girls seek lonely, solvent foreigners to save them from the drudgery of the sex trade. Amidst Ari's adaptation to this new world, a propitious encounter takes place, outside Ari's bar, when she's recognized by her long lost elephant friend, Teaak, who is plied on the same entertainment street. Threatened by any possible bond between the girl and his charge, the elephant's handler is quick to deny that Teaak is the elephant from Ari's past.

Ari takes readily to the internet, partly to escape the sleaze of the bar scene. Through the prosaic eye of a web cam, Ari soon finds what seems to be a promising man. While waiting for Mike's arrival from his far-off country, Ari encounters Teaak almost daily, to the chagrin of the elephant's handler, who becomes increasingly contemptuous when he realizes that the girl and his charge have a history. It's a bond that he attempts, in vain, to destroy.

With Mike's arrival, Ari's optimism is raised as their relationship becomes quickly romantic. However, Ari's dreams are frequently soured by Noi's jaded and more experienced view of Ari's naive relationship with the foreign man. When problems at Ari's village call her home, she's invited by her grandmother to return and implement a hands-on resuscitation of their ailing farm – a seed that unconsciously affects all of Ari's future decisions.

Back in the city, Ari is left confused and lonely as Mike returns to his country, leaving her a mobile phone, a large talking teddy bear, promises of financial sustenance and a speedy return.

Soon, the fierce and loyal Noi awakens Ari to Mike's less than honourable intentions, unearthing the teddy bear's hidden camera that transmits Ari's private life to Mike's voyeur internet business. Ari's aversion to participating in the illicit intensifies. Noi takes the helm; expertly controlling the content visible to the spy camera, goading Ari to exact more and more funds from the soon frustrated Mike.

While Noi's schemes include her protege, they conflict with Ari's humanitarianism. Lost and disappointed by love and her frequently brutal experiences in the city Ari grows determined to re-build her relationship with Teeak the elephant, constantly aggravating the creature's handler in the process. Soon enough, Ari realizes the animal is addicted to amphetamines, a common ploy to overwork the beasts.

While Noi is busy taking the bear camera further into the depths of internet voyeurism, Ari's grandmother arrives on their doorstep; and gradually Ari's own objectives are clarified. While Noi is the perfect ally for Mike's business, the underlying feelings he held for the now lost Ari begin to surface painfully.

Subjected to rape attempts from sadistic customers, Ari's attempts to re-earn the elephant's trust become both desperate and life-saving.

A fading escape plan from the bar scene is suddenly energized when the handler is arrested; Teaak, a less than stable giant alone in a city of people and cars, knows where to find her only friend in a broken and dangerous world. Alone, without her handler, Teaak pushes her way into Ari's bar, heading straight for the dancing Ari. From here it is clear that their paths are inextricably linked.

A difficult escape from animal police and an angry bar owner has Ari take her elephant and grandmother back to their village, guiding their way back to the uncertainties and promise of village life, while Noi slips away to a lucrative life with her voyeur's bear.