SYNOPSIS

Paid Mourners follows a family of professional mourners, where the unique trade is passed down through the women of the household. But 16-year-old Margo, a rising TikTok star, has no interest in continuing this decidedly unglamorous tradition. Her resolve is tested when her grandmother, Bavo, announces she has one week to live. With Margo’s mother absent, the responsibility of inheriting the family legacy falls on her. Determined to pass on the mantle, Bavo has only seven days to help Margo prepare her for the role she was born to take.

INTENTION

Armenia has had paid mourners for centuries — a tradition rooted in emotion, ritual, and feminine strength. Today, with TikTok and Instagram reaching every corner, even grief is being filtered out. We are told happiness is mandatory, even in sorrow. That tension — between an older world where sadness has form and dignity, and a new one where it is masked by curated joy — was where this story began.

What drew me in was the theatricality of the mourners, women who grieve with a flourish that borders on performance. There is humor in it, even beauty, and a deep unspoken wisdom. Bavo, the matriarch, carries this with pride. She sees through her granddaughter Margo’s glossy screen-world, sensing both her longing and her fear. Margo feels the “pain of living” swelling in her but does not know how to carry it — only how to scroll past it.

In our patriarchal society, grief is seen as weakness in men, but for women, mourning has always been a domain of power. For Bavo, mourning is not a job, it is a calling. She guides the living through the heartbreak of loss and guides the dead on their way to heaven. She fears that in a world obsessed with cheerful surfaces, no one will remember how to do this.