A. F. Th. Van der Heijden is a famous Dutch writer. Several of his books are adapted to film. In 2016 there were even two films based on his writings "The fury" (Andre van Duren) and "Tonio" (Paula van der Oest).
Van der Heijden wrote "Tonio" about the death of his own child. Before I saw "Tonio" in the cinema I reviewed "Don't look now" (1973, Nicolas Roeg) on DVD.
Although both films are about the loss of a child, they are totally different at first glance. "Don't look now" has a supernatural flavor while "Tonio" is highly realistic. Not so strange when you take into account that the loss in "Tonio" is not fiction but fact.
On second glance however there are more similarities than expected. In "Don't look now" there are attempts to communicate with the dead child. In "Tonio" the dead child has a digital life that was unknown to his parents. His mobile phone still rings once in a while (do you answer these calls?). Social media shows that Tonio had two girlfriends. One girl was in love with Tonio, Tonio was in love with the other girl, neither love was completeley reciprocal (do you want to meet these girls?). Last but not least the traffic accident that killed Tonio turns out to be recorded by camera (do you want to see these images?).
At first the mother is more shocked than the father. In the hospital she almost has a nervous breakdown. Later however she is wise enough to keep the digital heritage of her son at a distance. The father however gets more and more addicted to this heritage. Feeding his grief and ultimately his madness. Another similarity with "Don't look now".
By the way the scene in the hospital at the beginning of the movie is a brilliant portrayal of desperation. The parents are shocked, have put on some clothes in a big hury and had no time to comb their hair. They are portrayed against the immaculate white of the hospital.
