Juleaften 1989 bliver Patricias mor skudt og dræbt i sit hjem i Uganda, da Patricia er to år gammel. Juleaften 2013 føder Patricia sin datter, Imelda, som er opkaldt efter moren. Mere end 30 år efter drabet og efter selv at være blevet mor, er Patricia klar til at undersøge sin families fortid og vende tilbage til sit fødeland. I sin søgen efter mening må hun se sine egne traumer i øjnene for at kunne vriste sig fri fra dem.
On Christmas Eve 1989, when film director Patricia Bbaale Bandak is two years old, her mother is shot and dies in the family home in Uganda. On Christmas Eve 2013, Patricia gives birth to a daughter of her own and names her Imelda after her late mother. Today, more than 30 years after the murder, she travels to Uganda to delve into the traumatic past and find out why her mother was killed and to get closer to who she really was. But how can you paint a truthful picture when culture dictates that you can’t speak ill of the deceased? And when you struggle to ask your father the difficult but necessary questions? Through dusty archive footage, shaky and humorous conversations with her brothers in Denmark and her family in Uganda, ‘Death of a Saint’ moves slowly towards an understanding of the brutal murder and her mother, but also of motherhood, family life and Patricia herself.