'Tonio' director on investigating a family's grief within the creative process

Paula van der Oest began work on her latest film, “Tonio,” with an ending. On the morning of May 23, 2010, a young man, Tonio van der Heijden, was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle back to his home in The Netherlands. The budding photographer, in critical condition, later died at the age of 21.

For his parents, Adri and Mirjam van der Heijden, the time after his death was consumed with grief and longing for a life snuffed out so soon. For Adri, a renowned Dutch fiction writer, his son’s passing resulted in a blaze of creative energy that led to “Tonio,” a “requiem memoir” published a year after his son’s death — a memoir that was the seed for van der Oest’s film, the Netherlands’ official Oscar submission. ...

Read the rest at The Wrap

---

Image credit: Van der Oest: Ted Soqui.