In South Africa, many cultures revere the ocean as the realm in which the ancestors dwell. When a child asks their teacher named Nowandle: "How do the ancestors get into the sea?" a mystical adventure unfolds in Nowandle's loving narration against an African operatic choral score. After death, the soul transforms into a young ancestor, who travels through the underground streams, through river systems, remembering the personality of the places they had once lived. All the while they are called to the deep sea by the great great grandmothers, ancient beings who dwell in the realm on the sea floor. Called by this son, the spirit returns to her loved ones, receiving all the collective knowledge of her ancestors. She dwells down there for a very long time, until matters on land are pressing, and her next mother calls her. Moving to the surface, the soul is carried by a cloud and rained down on a village, whereupon, collecting rainwater, their next mother drinks her, and there, inside the ocean of her belly, she grows only to be born again.
The film finds resonance between indigenous and scientific knowledge and brings spirit and spirituality to our common understanding of the water cycle.
