Romeo (1990)

Artist Anne Herden lives with actor Matthijs. Anne is now almost seven months pregnant and is looking forward to the birth of her baby. Gradually, however, Anne begins to worry when it becomes clear that her belly is barely growing anymore. An ultrasound shows that her baby’s kidneys have calcified and that it is not viable. The baby will die during birth or shortly afterward. The test results hit Anne and Matthijs hard. This is especially so because they are faced with a terrible dilemma: should they let the baby be born naturally, or induce labor? With the first option, Anne would have to carry her almost-dead baby for another two months. The gynecologist advises inducing labor, and Anne and Matthijs decide to follow this advice. The baby is born prematurely and dies. The nurse manages to persuade Anne to say goodbye to the dead baby. She names the child, a boy, Romeo, and holds him in her arms. When Anne and Matthijs are back home, Anne’s ordeal truly begins. She cannot come to terms with Romeo’s death and keeps talking about it. Friends and acquaintances are shown photographs of the dead baby, but no one can find the right words to comfort her. Anne’s state begins to irritate Matthijs. He wants them to move on with their lives and tries to cheer Anne up. But she sees this as a betrayal of Romeo and accuses Matthijs of being cold and unloving. It is not long before Anne and Matthijs begin to grow apart. Anne sinks into apathy, while Matthijs tries to forget everything by throwing himself into his work. When Anne visits the cemetery and sits grieving on a bench, an old man comes and sits beside her. He tells Anne that he still visits the grave of his son, who died young, and talks to the boy. He looks at the photographs of Romeo and says that he is a lovely little boy. Anne bursts into tears. For the first time, someone understands that she is the mother of a son, and not merely a woman with a dead baby. She thanks the old man and emerges from her apathy. Later, when she talks with Matthijs about her feelings, he too softens and realizes that he had been so focused on suppressing his own grief that he had not been there for Anne.