All Against All (2019)

Directed by: Luuk Bouwman | 104 minutes | documentary

Wasn’t fascism in the Netherlands a German invasion that started in May 1940 and ended in May 1945? A comforting thought: good people dominated by evil people, and then liberated by other good people. A war psychosis from which you can awaken. Anyone who sees the first images of the documentary ‘All against all’ would say the opposite: am I sitting here watching a mass gathering in Nuremberg? No, it’s Lunteren.

“This is not fiction”, Luuk Bouwman tells the viewer. Smart too, says the documentary maker Polish guest workers who reside in a holiday park next to the fascist monument in Lunteren (the ‘Mussert Wall’). “Would the Dutch be okay with us occupying an entire park?” says one of the Polish youths while rolling a cigarette.

Bouwman’s apparent aim is to show what moved the fascists who paved the way for the Nazis (including the NSB), and to establish a link with the present. Subtly, that is – see the intriguing example of the Poles, but a message such as ‘The Netherlands for the Dutch’ cannot seem strange to followers of The Hague’s politics in 2020, not even the younger ones.

The documentary looks like a thoroughly made teaching product for secondary schools; a somewhat long-winded film for seniors – food for discussion afterwards, led by a history or social studies teacher. Afterwards everyone says to each other: “I did not know that there were also Dutch people who adhered to fascism, hopefully this will never happen again.”

Well, almost everyone: there is probably also a silent minority in today’s school classes, who can easily become a silent majority under pressure. Just like then. ‘The rancorous poison’ has the characteristics of a virus, this aptly titled documentary teaches.