DEAD BODY WELCOME

Kees Brienen plays himself in this meditative road movie in which the protagonist, on arriving in India, finds out that the friend with whom he wanted to watch an eclipse of the sun has died. Shocked and dazed, he sets out on a long journey that takes him from chaotic urban bustle to a mountain village where he finds the body of the deceased. Helped by villagers who perform the last rites and carry the body over the hills, Brienen accompanies his friend to his final resting place.
This simple story with hardly any dialogue is borne by impressions of Brienen’s state of mind and mood shots of the surroundings: from scruffy hotel rooms, bustling street life and endless roads to the serenity of the mountains, cloaked in clouds. Several encounters on the way teach him to accept the natural rhythm of life and death.
Inspired by true events, something the documentary opening shot refers to. After previous experimental work, this is Brienen's first feature.