After 21-year-old student Tonio dies in a traffic accident, his novelist parents face sorrow and regret as they suffer the agony of losing their only child.
Acting
Rifka Lodeizen's grief is so physical you'll hold your breath.
Direction
Van der Oest fractures time like memory itself—past and present bleeding.
Writing
Adapted from the real father's memoir; every word earned through blood.
Director
Paula van der Oest
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on A.F. Th. van der Heijden's acclaimed memoir, one of the Netherlands' most devastating literary works on parental loss. The author plays himself.
The fractured timeline mirrors how grief actually works—no beginning, no end, just moments that crash into each other. The director lost her own brother young.
NL
