There is deep trust and affiliation in the mahout ritual of bathing an elephant

A mahout is the person charged with looking after an elephant, a relationship that lasts for the duration of both their lives. As part of his responsibilities, the mahout regularly bathes the elephant in his charge, massaging its thick hide with the husks of coconuts. In this wonderfully observed sequence, which was shot in Kerala, South India, the director Tom Goudsmit shows the ritualistic bathing of the elephant by the mahout, all carried out with remarkable reverence.