Mexiko: Die Tage der Toten

In Mexico, death does not mean goodbye forever. Once a year, the country turns into a sea of yellow-orange cempasúchil flowers, the flower of the dead. On the first two days of November, the deceased return to their families along the path indicated by the blossoms. The Days of the Dead are a celebration of joy according to ancient traditions, a family reunion of a special kind. This does not mean that death is not also a painful experience: Beatríz Huacuz is a young woman from the Purépecha people. Beatríz's family lives in a village on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro. Her grandfather Agostin was the most important person in her 24-year life. He died only a few weeks before the days of the dead and is expected back for the first time this year. Now the task is to build a colourfully decorated altar to her grandfather. Beatríz wants to welcome her grandfather on his first visit to the world of the living with something very special: Agostin has dreamed all his life of learning how to make the famous Mexican skeletons out of papier-mâché. To fulfil her grandfather's greatest wish post mortem, Beatríz sets off for Mexico City, because that is where the true artists of papier-mâché skeletons can be found...