The East

In 1946, just after World War II, more than 100.000 young soldiers are shipped from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies to fight yet another war. The Dutch East Indies colony has just declared its independence and the Dutch government wants to suppress this fight of freedom as quickly as possible. Among the troops is Johan, who has several reasons to do his part in the escalating conflict. With boyish enthusiasm, he enters this adventure in this exotic country. Johan makes friends and falls in love, but pretty soon he gets fed up with waiting for action in a country that, it seems, doesn’t want to be “liberated”. Things finally start to make sense when he meets the infamous captain “The Turk” Westerling. Johan thinks that a forceful man of action like The Turk is exactly what is needed to force a breakthrough in the conflict, so he happily accepts his offer to join the captain’s elite army squad and fight the local rebellious forces. When The Turk’s actions become increasingly brutal, Johan starts to reconsider his beliefs about right and wrong and his personal role in this war…