Interview: Director Paula van der Oest on Dutch Oscar Submission 'Tonio'

By Jose Solís.

In Tonio director Paula van der Oest chronicles the grieving process of two parents (Pierre Bokma and Rifka Lodeizen) who have just lost their 21-year-old son (Chris Peters) in a tragic accident. As they cope with the pain and chaos, they must also come to terms with the fact that Tonio was much more than they thought, and we see them discover their son’s passions and dreams. Based on an autobiographical novel by A.F.Th. van der Heijden, the film is an unsentimental portrait of pain, told with inventive storytelling techniques and featuring superb acting by the leads. I spoke to director van der Oest about finding the film’s tone, working with the actors and doing the Oscar circuit once again (she was nominated for Zus & Zo and her film Accused made the finals two years ago)

Read the interview after the jump...

JOSE: The film approaches death in a very unsentimental way. How did you come up with the tone you wanted to achieve?

PAULA VAN DER OEST: When they approached me to make the movie, since it was based on a popular book, I was afraid I’d spoil it. I read it and then sat down with the producers and told them I’d do it, but I didn’t want stars, a title song, or any of the ingredients used in films like these. I don’t like sentimental movies, I wanted to go to the bones, we didn’t need it anything else to make it more dramatic.

JOSE: Can you talk about the work with the actors, particularly the ones who play the parents?

PAULA VAN DER OEST: I believe in rehearsing with actors, not by doing the mise-en-scene but by talking with them about the characters. There are so many dramatic scenes but you can’t play them all with the same dramatic degree. When we shot it, we could go back to the dosage of drama per scene. I wanted them to look for that feeling inside themselves, they’re both parents, so of course thinking about losing your child forces you to confront some terrible things. In the hospital scene they were quite devastated.

Director Paula van der Oest

Even though the film is about the death of a child, it’s also about how little parents know their children. Did making the film make you reevaluate your own relationship with your parents?

The father in the film has such guilt because he doesn’t know a lot of things about his son, I have two children so I also thought about that, for me it’s also a theme in the film. My son watched the film in the Dutch premiere and cried five minutes into the film. I think the film resonates on both sides equally.

There’s a scene where Adri, the father, dreams of the things he would have told his son about how to flirt with a girl. Did you think of him as a director in this scene?

He was expressing his deep wish, he was not necessarily directing although of course he’s telling his son to turn that way, or do this, but on the whole this scene was more about his wish.

Tonio manifests to his father through cameras, the first time when the father sees this image of his son as Oscar Wilde, he also tells him he wants to be a filmmaker, and then there’s this moment where the father sees the footage of the accident where his son died. As a filmmaker how have cameras and images affected the way you perceive the world?

Everybody knows loss, it connects us with other people who have gone through the same. Art can make you feel less lonely, you grieve and cope by yourself, but in Q&A’s I realized many people who had lost family members came to see the film, and they thought the film helped them cope with loss.

Can you talk about images as a way of preserving life?

One thing the movie does through images is bringing the son to life again. It prolongs and celebrates his life, you can’t live in fear of losing people, so that’s why the son lives through the movie.



As one of the female directors whose countries submitted their films for Oscar consideration, can you talk about your experience as a female director in Europe?

I can say in my country it’s not a big issue, there’s 36% female directors, I know my colleagues, we support each other so for me it’s not a big issue. I see no reason whatsoever why women can’t be directors, it’s silly we even have to discuss it.

You’re no stranger to Oscar season, how is this different than previous times?

My first time was so exciting, it was a total surprise because it was my third film. My second time I wanted people to see the film, in this time I wasn’t thinking about awards when I made the film. I made this film for the author of the book and his wife, it’s such a personal movie, I wasn’t thinking about the Oscar, but about people. I also think it would be great for Dutch film if we were nominated, our directors go into the world, look how Paul Verhoeven is representing France for instance. I might even come work in America to get to work with a whole new pool of actors, but as long as I can make the movies I love doing at home I’ll stay there.

Foreign Film Oscar Charts
Predictions
Submissions

Other Foreign Film Oscar Interviews
Singapore - Boo Junfeng on the prison drama The Apprentice
Cuba - Pavel Giroud on the Havana HIV drama The Companion
South Korea - Kim Jee-woon on The Age of Shadows
Austria - Maria Schrader on Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
Italy - Gianfranco Rosi on the prize-winning Fire at Sea 

Foreign Film Contender Reviews
Death in Sarajevo - Bosnia & Herzegovina | Neruda - Chile | Mother - Estonia | Elle - France | Toni Erdmann - Germany | The Salesman - Iran | Chevalier - Greece | Sand Storm - Israel | Fire at Sea - Italy | Desierto - Mexico | A Flickering Truth - New Zealand | Apprentice - Singapore | Age of Shadows- South Korea | Julieta - Spain | My Life as a Courgette - Switzerland | Under the Shadow - UK | From Afar - Venezuela