For any filmmaker the subject – and concept – of family is always a go-to in terms of reference, insight and story. After a phone call from his ageing mother, documentary-maker Elvis A-Liang Lu is offered the chance to understand and even appreciate a group of people he barely knows, having left home 20 years previously.
His stubborn and blunt Taiwanese mother is worried for the future of their family and reaches out to a son who candidly admits that at times he has dodged all communication with them. “Doesn’t seem like you want to come home,” she says on a message. “We’re old now and need to tell you some things.”
Their phone conversations are blunt. She says: “Why don’t you pick up? He replies equally bluntly: “What? Do you need money again?” His subsequent plans to focus on his family as a subject for the doc are clear from the fact that he records the phone calls.
Initially returning home for just a few days, Elvis A-Liang Lu sets about filming his family. His tiny mother struggles up flights of stairs to clean an altar at which they pray to the gods. His father meanwhile sits with friends. “This son of ours is back for three days. He films a lot…” he says. Meanwhile Elvis’ penniless brother is convinced of his abilities as a medium, and helps others pray to the gods for help.
His mother is clearly stressed and tetchy with Elvis and talks with him about what he should do when she dies. “I’ve never seen the sea…but scatter my ashes there,” she says.
As the film develops, though, it is clear he comes to understand his estranged family more and more. His brother may be poor, but he is rich on schemes and ideas, and works hard as well, turning to the Gods for help. With a little financial assistance he starts to cultivate tomatoes, and despite bad weather (and concerns about how they might taste) he shows real determination.
His gambling-obsessed father often simply glowers at the camera, but he is also very ill with glandular cancer. As the film goes on it is clear he is reluctant to have treatment, which causes his mother to worry about mortality even more. But there are also moments of increasing tenderness and mutual understanding. His brother is grateful that Elvis helps him financially, and the director himself admits that he was selfish not to return home.
In an open and moving moment the mother emotes to Elvis A-Liang Lu that her biggest regret was not nurturing his talent and that she felt that she failed as a parent. “You had to leave home and fend for yourself,” she says sadly, while it is also clear that he has come to appreciate her and the many struggles in her life and also admits he “feels more complete now [he has] come home to film”.
At the end there is a charming coda as Elvis A-Liang Lu takes his mother on a train for a trip to the sea. With almost childlike glee she smiles as she wanders on the sand and talks about the sound and feel of the sea.
A Holy Family offers an engaging, at times moving delve into a family that has struggled to find its balance, but which eventually opens up and begins to appreciate and even understand each other.
Taiwan-France, 2022, 90mins
Dir: Elvis A-Liang Lu
Production: Volos Films, Films de Force Majeure, TAICCA
Producers: Stefano Centini, Jean-Laurent Csinidis
Cinematography: Wen-Chin Chou, CK Chen, Elvis A-Liang Lu
Editor: Y-Ling
Music: Point Hsu
With: Ying-Zhi Lu, Bing-Yun Lu, Yu-Zhu Zhang, Elaine Lu, Luca Lu, Yan-Yu Hong
