Tuan Ta Pesao

This film takes place in the North of Ambrym Island, in the archipelago of Vanuatu, Melanesia. Two graphic practices - referred to locally by the same vernacular term - attract our attention: drawings drawn with a continuous line with a finger on the dusty ground of the villages or the sandy beaches, and ephemeral figures made from a loop of vegetal string. What do these "writings" of sand and string tell us about the North Ambrym society? Experts in these procedural and geometric activities, traditional chiefs, and Vanuatu teachers speak to us about these practices in their links to the environment, mythology, rituals, magical practices, and mathematics of this small corner of the world.