Yaren and the Sun

Cheerful music plays and the sun shines through the trees as 10-year-old Yaren looks out the car window. It seems like the start of a relaxing vacation, but the girl is on her way to Missing You, a mourning camp in Belgium for children who have lost a loved one.

Yaren’s mother died when she was six. Her friend Kato’s father died a year ago. Yet the atmosphere in the camp is far from mournful, as becomes obvious when we see one of the supervisors dancing with a girl to the lively song “La Bamba.” It’s fine to have fun, the children learn—it can coexist with sadness.

The conversations between Yaren and Kato show how they struggle with universal questions: how do you move on from grief? Is a dead person still somewhere? The camp is a place where children cry and comfort one another, talk, hug, and laugh: indeed, a fine place to be for anyone who has ever mourned someone dear.