Ener­getic Ivanna lives with five chil­dren in a tiny sled car. She belongs to the nomadic Nenets, who breed rein­deer in the Arctic tundra. It is a rough but also … read more

Louis Hothothot was born as an ille­gal second child in China, his par­ents got severe­ly pun­ished and had to cope with bitter con­se­quences. After stay­ing for years abroad, the film­mak­er returns to his family and engages in lift­ing and heal­ing sup­pressed feel­ings of guilt and offens­es.  

“Wield­ing his camera with some­times intim­i­dat­ing effect, Louis forces his family to con­front their trau­mat­ic past, one that hides yet anoth­er ordeal. He probes them with sharp ques­tions and remarks to drag them out of a dis­tress­ing past. It’s painful, but nec­es­sary, because “if mem­o­ries are frozen in the past, what can dis­solve the pain?”” (idfa)  

Not just deal­ing with the past, it is also about his own iden­ti­ty between acquired West­ern cul­ture and cling­ing to his Chi­nese upbring­ing.  

Louis Hothothot (Louis Yi Liu) is a film artist, writer, graph­ic design­er. He was born and grew up in China, stud­ied graph­ic design, ani­ma­tion and video art at the China Cen­tral Acad­e­my of Fine Art in Bei­jing. He enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts pro­gram at the Dutch Art Insti­tute in 2012. In 2017, he fin­ished as Master of Film at the Nether­lands Film Acad­e­my. His long fea­ture debut FOUR JOURNEYS opened IDFA 2022. https://louishothothotart.wordpress.com/  

Direc­tor, cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Louis Hothothot
Edit­ing: Chris van Oers, Louis Hothothot, Albert Elings
Music: Harry de Wit
Pro­duc­tion, dis­tri­b­u­tion: Pieter van Huys­tee Films

Some days, the black kites lit­er­al­ly drop from the sky—the air pol­lu­tion in Delhi, India, can be so intense that flocks of the birds fall to earth. If they’re lucky, … read more

THE HOMES WE CARRY por­trays a family torn apart by the tur­moil of world his­to­ry between Ger­many, Mozam­bique and South Africa. At the centre is Sarah, a young Afro-German mother. … read more