After separating heaven and earth, Tengri, the all-embracing God of heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian, and Mongolian beliefs, divided himself into man and woman to procreate. He named the woman the goddess Umai and settled her atop Mount Sumeru in the sky, near a milk lake called Sutkol. Here begins the story of Umai – the ancestor and spirit of women – on the vast steppes of the nomadic lands.

Lukács and Broersen examine the Western colonial perception of the jungle as an untouched wilderness or 'terra nullius.' The film reimagines botanical gardens in Brussels, Paris, London, and Amsterdam—places where the wilderness was once appropriated and transported to Europe. The iconic song I Wan'na Be Like You from Disney’s Jungle Book (1967) is reinterpreted by collaborators, most notably the Afro-Surinamese music group Black Harmony, offering a proud reimagining of their community’s history and future in the diaspora.

In a world where translation is increasingly automated, what understanding can emerge from intuition, improvisation, and nonverbal bodily intelligence? Amid the hum of their environment, two candidates train to interpret the rhythms, patterns, and nuances of a nearby field sparrow. What starts as an exercise in empathy and attunement leads to unexpected realizations about the ‘shape’ of language.