Disgrace
The protagonist in the film is Johan de Vries, a young Dutch volunteer recruited to help create a "peaceful Indonesia". However, his experience on the battlefield defies his belief in the policy of his own country.
Raymond Westerling with his APRA troops stirs up chaos in Bandung, 23 January 1950.
Rarely has a film sparked an emotional debate on a national scale before being widely screened. Now, this is happening in the Netherlands with the film De Oost (2020, Jim Taihuttu) or "Timur". The film was released on Amazon Prime (Netherlands-Germany-Belgium) last week. It was premiered only once, namely at the Dutch Film Festival in September 2020. De Oost depicts the ferocity of the KNIL army troops led by Raymond Westerling, who were assigned to "crush rebels and terrorists" in the Dutch East Indies, which had become the Republic of Indonesia. The protagonist in the film is Johan de Vries, a young Dutch volunteer recruited to help create a "peaceful Indonesia". However, his experience on the battlefield defies his belief in the policy of his own country.
Last year, the film was protested by a number of organizations in the Netherlands, including the Federation of Indian Dutch (FIN). Public debate has been raging in recent days. This month, there is a lawsuit in court and a demonstration in front of the courthouse. Last week, the court dropped the FIN lawsuit, presuming the filmmaker was innocent.