ARTE Distribution

Fogo Island, in Cape Verde, is dominated by the very active Pico do Fogo volcano. For more than two centuries, a community of irreducibles has settled in the crater and cohabits with the fire monster despite the dangers.

In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, Orthodox Christians confront their fears and baptize their children in churches perched high in the sky. At 800 meters, the troglodyte church of Abuna Yemata Guh is possibly the most inaccessible church on the planet.

Every day in this extraordinary place, men and women risk their lives to edge along the narrow crest to place their dead in the cavities in the rock, and to baptize their newborns on the top of the mountain.
On the day of the baptism, Khasa and her baby leave the village and head for the church. Draped in the traditional white, they walk for more than an hour to the mountain. At the bottom, the young mother scales the rock face, her feet and hands bare. The climb is difficult and extremely dangerous.
In the church, the priest and his assistant are waiting. The murals and ceiling of the church date from the 14th century and have been perfectly preserved. They are considered to be the most exceptional in the region of Tigray. The ceremony begins…

In the Marquesas Islands, an archipelago floating in the Pacific a thousand leagues from any continent, tattooing was a strong marker of identity. But with the arrival of colonizers and missionaries, this ancestral custom was banished. Now considered an art form in its own right, Patutiki is reclaiming the hearts, bodies and even faces of the inhabitants of these beautiful Polynesian islands.

Iceland is a land of glaciers and volcanoes. This island with its black soil was still wild and uninhabited when the first Vikings arrived in the 9th century. The first colonists settled in the bay of Reykjavik and soon spread across the whole territory. 

From the first Icelandic parliament in Thingvellir to the myths that endure today, the arrival of these pioneers would change this isle of ice and fire forever.

This 10-part series takes you on an anthropological and cultural journey to ten destinations around the world, to reflect on our globalized consumption patterns. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way possible to the last bastions of local customs and cultures.

Let us meet the men and women who make these markets a place of commercial and cultural exchange. While the globalized economy leads to a standardization of tastes and consumption, going to a market allows you to dive immediately into a local culture, to meet its inhabitants, its food, its smells, its colors, its customs. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way possible, to enjoy the abundant and varied riches of nature and meet people from different cultures around the world, who are the beating hearts of these markets. 

Follow an international team of scientists on a mission to develop groundbreaking solutions to save the Great Barrier Reef and its 9,000 unique species from extinction.
 

These species interact with the coral to form a complex and delicate ecosystem whose survival depends on each and every one of them. Yet today the coral—and therefore all the organisms that depend on it—is in great danger. In a visually stunning series about one the most beautiful natural habitats on Earth, our international award winning crew has followed a team of scientists for 5 years. Their mission is to develop groundbreaking technological solutions to save the GBR from destruction.

Every culture has its own rituals for dealing with the different stages that punctuate our lives (being born, growing up, seducing, bonding and dying). Each episode of this series will focus on two different cultures and their distinct or similar ways to deal with these issues. 

Being born, growing up, seducing, bonding, dying: this cycle of life is immutable. It is the very foundation of our condition as human beings, beyond culture. It leads us inexorably towards the end – after all, moving forward in life means moving closer to death, and from that point of view, living becomes a frightening adventure! This is why humans have invented accompanying rituals that help structure life in specific stages: the collective rites of passage from one stage to another provide individuals with a calmer perception of their mortal condition.
 

Meet those who, throughout the world, celebrate these life's transitions. Purification, isolation, pain, transformation of the body: every group has its own practices, beliefs and prohibitions that reveal its identity. By sharing these rituals with them, we gain an insight into their culture, their fears, their desires, their vision of life, their way of responding to “the difficult task that is growing up”.

It allows us to question our own anxieties and perspectives and reflect on the usefulness of these ritualized occasions. Today, our Western societies are becoming more and more emancipated from them: people are free to live out their love with whomever they choose, cremation is secular, and graduating is no longer a widely recognized official entry into adulthood. What do rites of passage teach practitioners? How do they help them move on to the next step? What kind of transformation does one undergo?

Beneath the oceans’ surface, thousands of volcanoes have yet to be discovered or explored. Mount La Pérouse is one of these sleeping giants, off the coast of Reunion Island. It is a genuine oasis of life that could be sheltering sprawling coral reefs.

The scientific expedition “La Pérouse” has made it its goal to reveal the sunken haven's secrets. This geological anomaly is only known to a few    Réunionese longline fishers who regularly enjoy miraculous catches there. But as for oceanographers, they still consider the area to be a true “terra incognita”, a mystery to solve. To date, no diver has ever approached it.
What kind of species lives there and at what depth?  What predators feed there? Are there any rare, or even unknown, fish? To what birds and marine mammals is it home?
Underwater GPS, photogrammetry, environmental DNA, 3D cartography, with the help of the most modern scientific techniques, all will be revealed about one of the last virgin territories on Earth, located in the French economic zone. Embark on an unprecedented human and scientific adventure.

Hernin and Marcellin Abong are two Vanuatu twin brothers with very different backgrounds: one has become the “Very Great Chief” of his tribe, while the other is an ethno-archaeologist. 

Their culture is slowly but surely disappearing forever. To keep a record of it, they both delve into the most remote parts of Vanuatu in search of the customs and rites of their people. On foot and by canoe, their journey takes them to grandiose and isolated territories, to discover spectacular and unknown rituals, even for them.

On the shores of Zanzibar, every twelve hours the sea waters retreat over hundreds of meters. Through the misfortunes of a little lost turtle in the mangroves and the sea grass beds, we will discover surprising creatures who have become masters in the art of camouflage and survival.

Stretching all along the beaches of Zanzibar, lies an aquatic maze of rocks, corals and marine prairies, populated with fascinating creatures. In these turquoise waters, some species are attired in flamboyant colors, whereas others favor discretion, camouflaged almost to perfection.
At the other end of the shore, high up on the beach, it’s hatching season for the green turtles. Fearless and resolute, these little heroines must reach the open sea as fast as possible. But things don’t always go as planned...

Along the Wadden Sea, in Germany, the fury of the wind and currents continuously reshape the landscapes. To live in this perpetually moving world is a real challenge especially for a new born seal.

By following its first steps we will discover the fight that the animals of the shores lead in order to adapt to the sudden drying up of the lagoons, the disappearance of islets and the aerial attacks of million migrating birds who invade Wadden every year.

Following the adventures of an Epaulette shark, trapped on a reef by the low tide, we will discover the astonishing strategies that corals, octopus and other animals of the shores have developed to protect themselves from dehydration and extraordinarily intense ultraviolet rays.

Northwest of Australia, is one of the wildest and most isolated shores on the planet. A virgin and barely explored world still, where natures offers some of its most beautiful scenery. In Kimberley, the powerful ebb and flow of the sea and the tumultuous union of the Indian Ocean with the Timor Sea have shaped bays of white sand, vertiginous cliffs and coral reefs subjected to a most unique phenomenon.
For each of these heroes, life on the coast of Kimberley is an everyday challenge. Twice a day, they must deploy all their ingenuity to stay afloat despite the immense strengths of the tides.