Elephant Woman is inspired by David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, the dramatic story of a deformed being who suffers the atrocities of a society that does not accept him. Curiously, the film’s protagonist could not sleep lying on a pillow because the weight of his head could be fatal, as actually happened in reality.
The confusion and maladaptation to established social codes, the rejection of one’s own image, isolation, helplessness, and exhaustion in the face of constant humiliation are only some of the shared feelings. The differences begin to appear through a series of performative acts, where certain movements—caused by imaginary ropes that alternately constrict her limbs or tie a heavy pillow to her head—dislocate her body until she collapses exhausted. These are metaphors describing the pressure of a violent external world that produces cognitive disruption when it seems impossible to resist; and only by removing the pillow from her head can she save her life.