Still: The Year of the Ghost - Louis Hothothot

“I don't try to predict where my documentaries will go. Life always teaches me that I don't know enough. Why don't we embrace possibilities and surprises?” reflects Netherlands-based Chinese filmmaker Louis HotHotHot whose The Year of the Ghost** world-premieres in IDFA Competition.

Produced by prolific Dutch producer Pieter van Huystee, the feature doc comprises an intensely personal exploration of family, grief and filial responsibility in the wake of the passing, in 2022, of the director’s father.

HotHotHot’s debut feature, Four Journeys, opened IDFA in 2021, at a time when the pandemic was still raging. On returning to China, he was forced to undergo 28 days of quarantine. During this period, his father, the family’s “shepherd,” died. Unable to be by his side in his final moments, HotHotHot was also prevented from attending the funeral.

His mother subsequently left Beijing to settle in the village where her husband was buried, devoting herself to caring for his “gentle ghost.” The village is home to widows and children whose loved ones have left for the big cities in search of work, leaving their families behind.

Meanwhile, Louis’s sister works from home as a matchmaker for an online dating platform, helping strangers find love while increasingly feeling abandoned within her own life. At forty, caught “between the promises of modern China and the expectations imposed on unmarried women,” she makes a sudden decision to marry a man she has met online and begin a family of her own.

Her decision leaves Louis facing a difficult dilemma: who will care for their mother? Should he give up the independent life he has built as a successful filmmaker in Europe? Or should he stay in China, embrace his familial obligations and look after his mother? Caught between these competing demands, he describes his predicament as leaving him adrift, like “a wandering sheep.”

“After my father died, I had to face the reality of caring for my mother, and this meant reconnecting with my sister,” HotHotHot tells SEE NL. “We had a complicated relationship, with many years of resentment and misunderstanding between us. At first, I found her anger difficult to understand. But by spending time with her, recording our family history, and exploring the generational trauma of women, I gradually began to see her differently. My feelings towards her slowly shifted from a mixture of love and anger towards love and compassion.”

“I think the camera helped me stay close to a reality that I might otherwise have wanted to avoid,” he adds. "Instead of simply reflecting on our relationship from a distance, I had to be present and experience it as it unfolded.”

The film uses animation to help illustrate the complex family dynamics that drive the story. “Ghost stories are not just products of our imagination. They can also express a tender wish to soothe our wounds,” expresses HotHotHot. “Animation is one of the best ways to tell ghost stories, allowing me to explore my deepest fears and desires.”

“On the other hand, animation allows me to tell stories about the past that were never documented,” he adds. “Beyond these two functions, animation also enriches the film's visual language. It creates another way of approaching reality, allowing memories, emotions, and the past to be expressed in ways that live-action footage alone cannot.”

It is obvious that HotHotHot is mining a rich and productive seam in documenting his family’s story, which is why the expansive trilogy format is so appropriate for its telling. “If Four Journeys, my first documentary, looks at the past, and The Year of the Ghost, my second, deals with the present, then the third film will turn towards the future,” the filmmaker confirms.

“I want to explore whether we can create a future that does not repeat the mistakes and traumas of the past. Ultimately, it is still about the same question that runs through my work: how do we love?”

Find out more about IDFA here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive