Watch the new trailer for 'Cher & The Loneliest Elephant' documentary

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 4/8/21

Cher is inviting you to join her "on a mission to set a wild thing free" in the new trailer for her Paramount Plus documentary Cher & The Loneliest Elephant, due out this Earth Day (April 22).

The project follows the 74-year-old as she traveled to a zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, to set an elephant named Kaavan free. "I could see him from the distance," Cher says in the trailer. "He was shackled. He was suffering. Elephants are just like we are. They're so family-oriented and emotional, and so, I wanted to free him."

Kaavan had been held in captivity at the zoo for 35 years with 10 of those years spent all alone, and Cher couldn't stand to leave him there. She orchestrated a team to relocate him across Asia to Cambodia.
The 96-second trailer is set to Cher's song "Sirens":

Cher had been working on freeing Kaavan for three years, she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour during their sit-down interview last December:

"Well, I didn't plan to at all," the Grammy winner said. "The kids on my Twitter feed starting sending this thing, and it was #FreeKaavan, and I thought, 'Well, OK. If I don't answer, they'll just stop.' But they didn't. It was in Pakistan, and I thought, 'I'm just an entertainer. How am I gonna go to Pakistan and free an elephant?'"

The Guardian also published a profile on Cher around the same time, where writer Simon Hattenstone further explained the backstory:

"She remembered that, four years earlier, she had met Mark Cowne, Bob Geldof’s manager, and that they had bonded over their love of elephants. She rang him out of the blue. 'I said: ‘Hi, do you remember me, it’s Cher, would you like to go to Pakistan and save an elephant?’ He said sure.' They started the charity Free the Wild, and masterminded a plan to free Kaavan, who was relocated to Cambodia at an estimated cost of $400,000 (£300,000). A Pakistani court ordered the zoo’s closure last May."

And Cher isn't satisfied with saving just one elephant;

Kaavan alone Shackled in Shed MOST OF HIS LIFE. Kaavan Asianin Cambodia.Happy, Kaavan meetingGirlfriend. Kaavan leavingIslamabad. Lucy, AsianStands Alone in Snow.Heart Breaks 4 her.She Belongs in Cambodia With Kaavan.Would you tie ur Dog alone Out in the Snow 4 days on end pic.twitter.com/IaCVLwhj9z
— Cher (@cher) December 19, 2020

Free the Wild lists its mission, in part, as "to stop the suffering of wild animals in captivity and ultimately find a way to release them into sanctuaries or better equipped zoos." To learn more, visit the official website.

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