The East (2020)

Directed by: Jim Taihuttu | 141 minutes | drama, war | Actors: Martijn Lakemeier, Marwan Kenzari, Jonas Smulders, Abel van Gijlswijk, Coen Bril, Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Jim Deddes, Jeroen Perceval, Mike Reus, Joenoes Polnaija, Denise Aznam, Peter Paul Muller, Huub Smit, Putri Ayudya, Lukman Sardi , David Wristers, Joes Brauers

While the expression “Indies lost, disaster born” was still in vogue in the Netherlands, the Indonesian struggle for independence erupted in full force immediately after the Second World War. The Japanese occupier had hardly packed up from the Dutch East Indies when the Netherlands sent all its army to put things in order in the former colony. Some of the Dutch young men saw this as an excellent opportunity to give something back to the fatherland after the liberation from the German occupation. Once in Indonesia, however, they were disappointed. First, the situation there was so complex and unstable that it was not easy to resolve. In addition, the Dutch soldiers did not exactly receive a warm welcome from the local population. In addition, they sometimes had to wait until boredom in the army camps before they could take action. These data only characterize the beginning of the film ‘De Oost’.

‘The East’ starts very strongly with a true sketch of what it must have been like for ‘our boys’ in the unknown, far away from home. The film follows Johan de Vries and his war comrades during their training, the languid days at the army camp, during the first patrol in enemy territory, and so on. You see the men fraternizing and fighting for each other in a convincing way. Although war films have used these clichés since the First World War, ‘De Oost’ manages to keep this process fresh with a sharp eye for dramatic and historical detail. The camaraderie is central to the film and not the act of war. In short, as a viewer you become a bit of one of the boys.

‘De Oost’ focuses mainly on Johan’s story. Johan has volunteered for the police action, which not everyone did at the time. He does not doubt the value of the mission, but that does not last long. Once Johan is in Indonesia, in his eyes nothing they do seems to have any real effect on the unstable state of the country. Then Raymond Westerling, also known as ‘The Turk’, crosses his path. Johan falls under the spell of this rising star within the Dutch army. Westerling seems to be one of the few who knows what needs to be done to make this military mission a success. However, Johan slowly comes to realize that Westerling’s methods are, to say the least, unorthodox and put him in situations that cannot bear the light of day, including summary executions. Parallel to these events, ‘De Oost’ shows how much Johan struggles with these war experiences and a painful family past, his father was a Nazi sympathizer, when he returned to the Netherlands. This film is therefore not only about soldier life during the Indonesian war of independence, but also about how veterans ‘continue fighting’ after the war is over.

In a nutshell, ‘The East’ feels like a poignant and skilful cross between the American war classics ‘The Deerhunter’ (Michael Cimino, 1978) and ‘Platoon’ (Oliver Stone, 1986). Sometimes this international co-production (the Netherlands, Indonesia, Belgium and the United States) also touches the level of these classics. That in itself is special. It is all the more admirable with a budget of 6.6 million euros. An exceptionally high amount by Dutch standards, but if you put it in an international perspective, this is about half the cost for one episode of “Band of Brothers” (Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks, 2001).

Moreover, it is courageous that ‘De Oost’ does not hide behind fiction, but tries to present a historically faithful image of this black page in Dutch history. It is limited in vision (main perspective is the archetype Dutch boy Johan) and by no means the whole story, but it also doesn’t do any major violence to these events. In addition, regardless of the historical success of the film, ‘De Oost’ certainly offers the Dutch cinema audience food for thought about this very bloody period in the shared history with Indonesia.

Incidentally, the high-quality end result does not come out of the blue. Director Jim Taihuttu has been making progress for over a decade, with success. After the uninhibited tragicomic road movie ‘Rabat’ (2011) and the grim street drama ‘Wolf’ (2013), for which he won the Golden Calf for directing, Taihuttu is taking another nice step in his directorial career with ‘De Oost’.

Yet ‘De Oost’ also has its problems. The film falters in story technically in the third act and therefore loses power. Moreover, Johan’s eventual actions in the Netherlands, fueled by, among other things, a remorse of conscience about Westerling’s methods of war, is dramatically not fully portrayed. Nevertheless, the film keeps you hooked until the very end, because the story around Westerling, including the post-war part, is so amazing that you couldn’t have made it up. Then it is somewhat unfortunate that the film does not manage to bring all the storylines to a satisfactory end. Still, it is more important that Taihuttu, in addition to the cinematic ambition, dared to address a loaded historical subject in a way that is quite rare in the Dutch film landscape. Kudos for that alone!