The East (2020 film)

The film is set in post-WW2 1946 in the Dutch East Indies at the time of the Indonesian National Revolution. A young deployed soldier named Johan becomes enthralled with Army Captain Raymond Westerling, who leads counterinsurgency operations against the Indonesian guerrillas and purge operations on South Sulawesi. Gradually, Johan finds himself questioning the war more and more.

• Martijn Lakemeier as Johan de Vries
• Marwan Kenzari as Raymond Westerling
• Jonas Smulders as Matthijs
• Joes Brauers as Herman Keizer
• Huub Smit as Lieutenant Hartman
• Jeroen Perceval as Janssen
• Peter Paul Muller as Majoor Penders
• Jim Deddes as Werner
• Reinout Scholten van Aschat as Tinus
• David Wristers as Marcus Waterman
• Abel van Gijlswijk as Charlie
• Coen Bril as Eddy

Director Jim Taihuttu had been developing a film project about a "black page of Dutch history" since 2012.[1] Producer Sander Verdonk joined the film in 2015 and from then on started looking for financiers.

In writing the screenplay, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies were consulted for historical facts,[3] and a conscious effort was made to find a co-production partner in Indonesia. Verdonk told us about the reasons behind this: "For us such a cooperation was very important. We didn't want to settle down there like some kind of neo-colonist and make a little film. A large part of the crew was Indonesian."[1]

The filming period started in February 2019 in Indonesia, ultimately filming for 48 days in Indonesia, with six additional filming days in the Netherlands.[4]

First footage of the film was released in May 2020,[5] premiering at the Netherlands Film Festival on 25 September 2020.[6] The film was originally scheduled for theatrical release on 10 September 2020, but due to delays incurred by COVID-19, the release was postponed until 13 May 2021, alongside a release on Amazon Prime Video.[7]

The film was criticised by Dutch veteran and interest groups including the Reawaruw organization, the Veterans Platform and the Dutch East Indies Federation for its historical inaccuracies. Some Waffen-SS references were added like dark uniforms for troops and a Toothbrush moustache, which is commonly associated with Adolf Hitler, for Westerling. In reality, Dutch troops used the Dutch standard light uniforms and Westerling did not have a moustache.[8][9][10]

RogerEbert.com reviewer Simon Abrams awarded the film two stars, comparing the film unfavourably to the Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now. Abrams criticised Taihuttu and Duygulu for indulging in the "chauvinistic mentality" of the main protagonist Johan Jr. and presenting the Indonesian natives as "meek victims." Abrams described the first half of the film as a "Coppola/Herzog-style fever dream" where the conflicted protagonist is exposed to the limits of their perspective but opined that the second half of the film failed to build on this narrative flow.[11]

• The East at IMDb