After 21-year-old student Tonio dies in a traffic accident, his novelist parents face sorrow and regret as they suffer the agony of losing their only child.
It's the hot summer of 1972: the Americans launch their last mission to the moon; also a time of dungarees and hallucinogenic wallpaper. On the eighth floor of a new Dutch apartment block, 12-year-old Duch lives with his family. His hobbies are space travel and Mary, the pretty woman next door. Duch’s father prefers to watch the neighbour who recently moved in two doors down. Her arrival makes the residents aware of the free-sex morality. Up until now it had left the eighth floor untouched, but that is clearly not to everyone’s satisfaction.
Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt achieved worldwide renown in 1979, when his work for four pianos Canto Ostinato was first performed. Although some music experts viewed it with disdain - it broke with prevailing notions of serialism and tonality - the piece was a huge hit in the contemporary classical music world. In the years since, numerous musicians have released their recordings of Canto, and it is still being performed around the world. Director Ramon Gieling interviewed a large number of people about the sometimes far-reaching impact this composition has had on their lives. One interviewee tells of how Canto was the soundtrack to the birth of her son; another has a section of the score tattooed on his arm. Gieling seeks to unravel the mystery of the universal power of music, and his blend of documentary footage, fiction, essays and archive material produces a multifaceted response to the question of just what it is about this piece that touches people so deeply.
