My parents lost a child when I was three years old. That’s how I’ve always told it. I thought I was too young to understand. But when I had my second child, every night I’d sleep with my hand on their chest. I had to make sure they were still breathing.”

After Mourners is about those left behind when a little child dies. About different ways of coping with grief. But also about mourning someone you can’t remember, about being the child who remained. About memories in constant transformation. In an intimate and poetic short documentary, mixing live material with charcoal and pencil animations, we hear the director’s parents tell the story of losing their little daughter. How they reacted in different ways, took on different roles. The director herself tries to understand: Is this why she is so afraid when her second child is born? Can grief be inherited?

After Mourners is a film and a labor of memory, thirty-seven years later. Can we sit together, share the sorrow?

Director and cinematographer: Hanna Högstedt

Producer: Lovisa Charlier

Animation: Annika Bergström

Music: Xenia Kriisin

Sound design: Jan Alvermark

Featuring:

Ia Högstedt

Per HögstedtHanna Högstedt

Juno Linder

Film type: Short

Category: Documentary

Duration: 25 min

Language: Swedish

Swedish title: Eftersörjare

Production country: Sweden

Premiere: Göteborg Film Festival 2023, winner of the Draken Film Award