Painkillers

Casper has never met his father and lives alone with his mother Marit. Most of his free time goes into the piano, so being chosen as a pianist for a youth orchestra means a great deal to him, and he makes friends there with Anouk. Then he learns his mother is seriously ill: Marit has cancer. To handle his fear, he and his best friend Pim decide to go and find his father. Tessa Schram's Dutch film looks at how children deal with the fear of death. Casper's search for a father is really a search for a replacement, an attempt to put something in place before the loss arrives. The film does not explain this in an adult's words, it just shows it. Music takes over where the boy cannot speak, and the piano scenes form the emotional spine of it.