NYADIFF 2024: Selling A Colonial War

We got the opportunity to watch the closing night film for the 2024 NY African Diaspora International Film Festival: Selling A Colonial War. The documentary is about the dark history of the Netherlands and Indonesia. From the beginning where Dutch colonialism first occupied the islands to the present day where the Netherlands doesn't acknowledge the existence of Indonesia independence and its government. . It has long been clear that what the Dutch government at the time described as “police actions”—the deployment of the army in response to Indonesia’s declaration of independence in 1945—was in fact an unlawful war. Nonetheless, the use of the term “war crimes” is still sensitive. The documentary directed by In-Soo Radstake who directed other documentaries dealing with Dutch colonialism and imperialism that have a slight influence on this film.

The film starts with a conversation with the director about the early years of Dutch encampment in Indonesia and the treatment that they did to the natives. From there you see various interviews throughout the film with associates of the Netherlands government and history scholars who invested time in the Dutch East Indies. The dialogue is a little hard to decipher due to the heavy Dutch dialect. Once you get through the subtitles and watch the images on how the Dutch manipulated the world by thinking they're doing good is where the secrets comes out and a back and forth commences. The period between 1945 to 1949 is a focal point of the film. This is where Indonesia declared independence and exiled from the Dutch and where the country self governed itself and became a point of conversation in the early years of the United Nations. Also it was the period called The War of Independence and the film discusses in length the roles of the participants and the aftermath from it.

A very dense documentary about a very sensitive subject. Very few know about it and the ones that know doesn't want to revisit or remember it. Hence the hard work the director had to put in to get various interpretations from both sides. A fresh look into this topic is what the director was trying to get with the film and it looks that way. For those who never knew about Dutch culture and Indonesia’s fight this film is a great starting point. It is a fascinating look at propaganda and the effects that it have society at home. We see why it was the closing night of the festival. It was perfect and relates to the current political climate that the festival represented.