Paper Houses and Horses

In a Taiwanese mortuary, the bodies of deceased children are kept for years when families are absent. Funeral workers prepare rituals, paper houses and horses are burned, and quiet gestures of care unfold. Observing institutional routines and private mourning, the film reflects on how the living accompany the dead on their final journey.

An Chu: ‘I visited this particular morgue in Northern Taiwan for a year before making this film. One of the funeral directors told me that many children’s bodies are kept in the freezer for several years due to the absence of their parents, who may be in jail, undergoing rehabilitation, or living in hiding as undocumented migrant workers. Social welfare units are often unable to intervene. As a result, funeral parlors sometimes hold a simple ceremony for these children and burn paper offerings for them. According to our beliefs, the deceased will receive whatever we burn for them in this world in the afterlife, including paper houses, horses, and other worldly objects. A large portion of the Taiwanese population practices Buddhism and Taoism, and believes in reincarnation and the afterlife. However, these children remain orphans even after death, becoming restless souls trapped in the morgue. If there are no ritual masters willing to perform a ceremony on their behalf, their fate after death remains unchanged. The gaze of the new recruit represents my own feelings when I first heard this story. Although the environment felt oppressive and formal, I felt I could use my imagination to do something for these children — to try to understand how they might feel, and to offer a different perspective and interpretation of their passing.’