Last Days
Photographer Lieve Blancquaert travels around the world to show how different cultures deal with aging and death.
Episodes
Sun City, built in 1960, was the very first village in the world exclusively for over-55s. Lieve is almost 55 herself and wondering if she would fit in mixes for a week among the residents.
Death often means forgetting, but not for the Toraja tribe on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. There they live together with their dead. Lieve can hardly believe it and travels to the other side of the world to experience the unique death culture of the Toraja's up close.
How do you become 100 years old? For the answer Lieve goes to the Japanese island of Okinawa. This is where the oldest people in the world live. The island is a popular place among scientists who do research into long life.
In Ghana a funeral is the 'place to be'. Lieve travels from one funeral to another, and tries to find out why the Ghanaians want to outdo each other with the greatest funeral.
Cuba has the highest number of people over 60 in Latin America and the figures continue to rise. Lieve visits Santovenia, Havana's largest retirement home where all residents help out in the household. The zest for life of the Cuban elderly is great; they go to discotheques, attend classes at the university, and unite in gymnastics.
In India there is one place where every Hindu wants to die: the spiritual capital Varanasi. Pilgrims come from all over the country to cremate their deceased relatives. Lieve is shocked how they deal with their dead here. The horror of the pyres is difficult to grasp. She visits a star hotel where Hindus stay who want to die in Varanasi and are cremated. She talks to pilgrims, hermits, and gurus, about reincarnation and salvation.
On All Saints day, Mexicans celebrate Dia de Muertos: The Day of the Dead. During the festival, the living together with the dead have a party in cemeteries. For a whole week Lieve hangs around the largest cemetery in the city of Oaxaca.
Lieve watches over the shoulders of the employees at the Pues funeral parlor in Herent, Belgium, a family business that has been taking care of our dead for four generations.
