Children Are Not Afraid of Death, Children Are Afraid of Ghosts

Four brothers and sisters, aged five to fourteen, collectively commit suicide by drinking pesticide: what could drive children to such an act of desperation? In 2015, shortly after this horrific event, documentary maker and artist Rong Guang Rong travelled to the village where the drama took place in the hope of finding an answer to this question. He was not made to feel welcome, however: he was arrested, intimidated and sent away, and his footage seized. He was nevertheless able to finish his film, and the result is an experimental, poetic documentary in which the filmmaker reflects, principally on the basis of his own children and his fears and dreams, on the demons in the lives of the four brothers and sisters: hunger, poverty, insecurity, parents who let them down, and the indifference of those around them. Winner NETPAC Award IFFR 2017