Does a loved one have dementia? Then this movie is SO nice

My grandmother suddenly wanted to do somersaults with me over my parents‘ bed. I thought that was great, my mother a little less. She had picked her up that morning from station Goes and had seen that she wet her pants. ’Oh Moses,' had my grandmother said, she quickly got dressed and everything was forgotten again. A few weeks later she had called. She was in the supermarket and had forgotten the way to her house. The house where she had lived for thirty-five years.

Dementia. How do you explain to your child that grandpa no longer remembers your name? Or walks and walks looking for something he doesn't even know himself. Fog in the head, longing for the past.

On Pathé Thuis, I was actually looking for Downton Abbey (the movie isn't out yet) when I stumbled upon Kapsalon Romy. I had seen Beppie Nelissen on DWDD talking about this film. Perhaps the most beautiful in her oeuvre, she had said. So I was sold, because how can you not love Beppie Melissen (if you portray the mother of Martin Morero like that, you deserve a statue, right?) and immediately typed in that we would rent the movie for 48 hours.

A brief summary of the story. Beppie Melissen plays the Danish Stine who came to the Netherlands for love and runs a hair salon here. Her daughter asks her to babysit her granddaughter Romy daily, something Stine is not keen on because she works, and children, well, they are a hindrance.

But the two find each other. Especially when Romy realizes that Stine needs her too, perhaps even more than Romy needs Stine. She slips her grandmother four euros when she really doesn't know how much to give back when someone pays with twenty and the amount was sixteen euros, she finds the lost money between the cushions of the couch (grandma had taken the day's earnings to the wrong bank) and pulls a book out of the fridge. The film reaches its most beautiful climax when Romy takes Stine to Denmark, her home.

My girls and I cried out loud and that was nice. Because dementia became clearer, we felt less alone in our grief and well, because sometimes a good cry can be very purifying.

Kapsalon Romy is on my favorite list of the most beautiful Dutch films. Next to Het paard van Sinterklaas, which was made by the same director, Mischa Kamp. Can I also order a statue for her?