De Oost (2020)

De Oost (2020). De Oost: Directed by Jim Taihuttu. With Martijn Lakemeier, Marwan Kenzari, Jonas Smulders, Abel van Gijlswijk. A young Dutch soldier deployed to suppress post-WWII independence efforts in the Netherlands’ colony of Indonesia finds himself torn between duty and conscience when he joins an increasingly ruthless commander’s elite squad.

“A hard to rate movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have to rely on stories my granddad told me serviing in theDutch Indies during that time. I have digged into the history, but i have to admit: Dutch eduction failed in the time I went to school about this subject.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie started with a coming home trip of the soldiers. I doubt that scene was close to history accuracy. Didnt fit the period of time. Looked more like the 80u0026#39;s or the 2020u0026#39;s the way people acted. But ok, I see why the scene was added.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe first part of the storyline was actually pretty good. I did vividly see my granddad up there. The boys getting klapper for the soldiers (klapper = coconut in the Indies). And yes the soldiers were just walking around to u0026quot;protect Dutch propertyu0026quot;. Please notice the quote marks. In the second half the story goes beserk. I doubt there was a team doing the things shown in the movie. This said, I have no doubts whatsoever, the Dutch stepped way across the line of what we call , hmmzz good. Lots of innocent civilians were simply murdered.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut it was clearly were the director gots his inspiration of: not history books (well, there arent many history books describing these dark pages of Dutch history), but movies like Platoon, Rambo, Deerhunter, Once upon in America (yes, too clear to not notice) and series like Tour of Duty.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut I still gave this movie a 7. Why? Well it is good someone tried to make a movie of this part of history. Besides that, the acting was overall pretty good and the camera work was above Dutch quality. The storyline, being historical accurate or not, was also good, and by being not chronological (did I already mention you can compare it to Once upon a time in America) it got even better.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso the thin line between good and bad was a good thing. The director, despite of his background didnt pick really picked sides and gave the viewer enough space to make his or hers own opinion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo I was surprised of the end result and I have to say, this might be one of the best Dutch movies I have ever seen, with actors not that well known in the Netherlands.”