Selling a Colonial War

In-Soo Radstake / Netherlands / 2023 / Czech Premiere / 132 min.

synopsis

Indonesia declared independence in 1945. The Netherlands, however, was not about to give up one of its lucrative colonies and sent some 120,000 troops to the country. Four years of bloody fighting ensued, resulting in thousands of casualties, mass displacement of the population and the serious disruption of diplomatic relations. The Dutch Government subsequently employed all the tools of censorship and propaganda to justify the illegal war as a humanitarian mission. This information-dense but lucid documentary uses archival footage and the testimony of numerous experts to reveal how far the former colonial power went in rewriting history.

“Although this is about history, I really tried not to make a historical documentary.” — In-Soo Radstake

biography

In-Soo Radstake (1979) is a South Korean director and producer of documentary and feature films and theatre performances. After studying journalism, he debuted in 2006 with Made in Korea, which had its world premiere at the Busan Film Festival. His second film Parradox (2010) premiered at IDFA.