De Oost

Most reviews are exemplary for society today: people choosing position at extreme ends based on the subject with no space for nuance or really talking about the actual matter at hand. Very high marks, or very low. Yes, it's an important subject, but the movie isn't good or bad because the subject is important.

The visuals are good and above par for Dutch movies. The narrative transcends Dutch standards of treating it's educated audience like children with baroque and derivative clichés in storytelling (i.e. Lobotomized Love Actually clones etc.). It's just that the movie is too long, or perhaps should have been longer but not as a movie but as a series, which would have allowed for different dynamics to have been explored more in depth. There are a lot of interesting things there to dig into, but due to the film format and limited time that means it can a little too feel superficial. That sense of superficiality to certain elements (or rather the desire to dig deeper) combined with the long length feel at odds with each other. The movie also seems not to be able to make up it's mind to be either a social commentary or war movie, which gives a sense of falling just shy of the mark in both categories. Still a valiant effort with strong casting, acting, directing and art direction and in any case important to raise a difficult subject of relatively recent history. Other than most reviews, the film can be commended for choosing nuance and showing there can be well intended albeit misguided reasoning (rooting out perceived evil) behind atrocious acts, and by doing so manages to steer clear of cheap morality.