A short, nonfiction animation about cultural identity and land.

Sondy weaves home video footage and family photos into a hand-drawn animation about her father’s journey from the Republic of Mauritius to France and the US. Integrating her own youth spent in transit, she explores the sense of longing and loss. She depicts the melancholy of the diasporic experience while calling to attention the effects of climate change, geopolitical capital, and redevelopment happening in her family homeland.

What is Mauritius?

Mauritius is a small island nation off the coast of Madagascar. It was colonized by the French from 1715-1810, and then the British from 1810-1968. The nation became independent on March 12, 1968. About 2/3 of the population is of Indo-Pakistani origin,1/4 of the population is Creole (of mixed French and African descent), and there are small numbers of people of Chinese and Franco-Mauritian descent. Though the official language of the island is English, most of the country speaks French. It isn’t uncommon to hear English, French and Creole spoken interchangeably.