A Holy Family

After twenty years away, director A-liang returns to his family home in a remote farming village and tries to reconnect with his relatives. Facing the familiar land and the people again, he finds that the difficulties and entanglements that drove him away have never really changed. His elder brother, who has been able to communicate with spirits since childhood, and the twelve deities the family keeps at home, make faith both the family’s comfort and an invisible curse binding them to one another.

From the silence and the stand-offs of this long-delayed reunion to a gradual opening, A-liang records each day with his camera — listening, watching, waiting — slowly uncovering the family’s injuries, and seeing that his own long absence had itself become a wound that would not heal. This is not only a journey back to his roots but a sustained look at forgiveness, self-examination and repair.