US, Japan, Korea, Tailand, Nepal, and we were back in Europe nine months later. In Korea, a journalist pointed us towards a very old-fashioned ceremony, something it was very important to have a record of. Ten we went to Tailand, and in Tailand we were not only interested in the Buddhist ceremony but mainly in the animist ceremony, because the animist ceremony is close to what happens in other countries, ancient cultures all over the world. You might film something very similar in Africa. And Mexico was really important also, because there is a tradition there of greeting death. Trough the books we read, through the people with whom we spoke, we were certain that we had to go.


Going into the filming you must have had a notion of what you were looking for or what you were going to find. What were some things that surprised you, or baffled your preconception?


TZ: In Mexico I went in with a sense that death was accepted, that death was not a drama, and I found this was not true at all. It is important that I mention that it was painful for us to make the film, because we were sharing the sorrow with people, we were really sad, sometimes crying. After a few weeks of shooting, we found that our script was too intellectual, not fitting with the reality and the violence of our subject, which was losing a loved one. It was painful going from one burial to another, and it was important that the film that came from this wasn’t something exciting or beautiful. We shared the anguish and sorrow of people who had agreed to be filmed. For nine months we were in mourning. When editing the film, we forgot our script. We just had the desire to share with the viewer the experience we had lived and our conviction that death helps us to understand how we should live, that life is sometimes unfair, sometimes wonderful, but still so fragile.


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