The Silent Army (Wit Light)

I think at best Dutch film director and screenwriter Jean van de Velde’s 2008 movie The Silent Army, or to give it its Dutch title Wit Light, is commendable in that it raises awareness, which in it self is never a bad thing, about a situation that we probable no very little about. But in this case it’s the story that’s a little far fetched, but not of course the problem it highlights, in this case the problem with and the hardships of child soldiers in Africa. Admittedly not the first film to be made about the subject, Johnny Mad Dog a French/Liberian film directed by Jean-Stephane Savaire was also released in 2008.

 

Small boy - big gun!

Dutchman Eduard Zuiderwijk owns and runs a restaurant conveniently located close to a conflict area involved in a civil war. When his wife (Ricky Koole) is killed in a car crash he is left to bring up his nine-year-old son Thomas (Siebe Schoneveld). Thomas’s best friend is a wee African boy whose mother works in the restaurant, but when rebels raid the village they live in Abu (Andrew Kintu) if forced to hack his crippled father to death with a machete. He is then abducted and taken to join the army of the rebel leader, a vicious psychopath, Michel Obeke (Abby Mukiibi Nkaage) to be trained as a child soldier. The rather naïve Thomas tries to persuades his father to search out the abducted boy and rescue him. Eduard, who you think would no better, closes the restaurant and takes his son on an ‘unarmed’ car journey to find the missing boy.  

 

Africa's Child Army.

What spoils the film for me is the character of Eduard Zuiderwijk whose actions and story line are extremely far fetched. Going off into the wild and dangerous countryside where no one dares to go "without an army" with a nine-year-old child in tow to find another child who, along with all the other members of the child army, has been completely brainwashed in to killing anyone that Obeke, now known as ‘daddy’, instructs them too!  Into all this bedlam is injected a love interest for Eduard in the form of the blonde good-looking NGO[1] worker Valerie (Thekla Reuten) who along with a rather dubious looking photojournalist (Peter van den Begin) do actually try to talk the restaurateur out of his highly perilous rescue mission into rebel territory, but surprise surprise, to no avail.   

 

Eduard Zuiderwijk meets 'Daddy'. 

Marco Borsato, in his debut role, play’s Eduard Zuiderwijk.  Borsato, who is one of the most successful and biggest grossing musical artists in the Netherlands and has been so for the past twenty years, is an ambassador of the Dutch NGO War Child, which helps children in (post) conflict areas to cope with their war experiences. By all means have a look at the film because I think it was made with the best of intentions but I’m afraid it did not succeed.

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[1] Non-Governmental Organization.

De Bende van Oss (The Gangs of Oss)

This Dutch crime thriller is based on actual events but the director Andre van Duran and the films producer Matthijs van Heijningen inform us that the film is not a history lesson and the protagonists in the film are composites of different people.

It’s set just before the start of the Second World War in the industrial city of Oss, which is in the southern province of the Netherlands. At this time the city was out of control, caught up in a crime wave, which involved all the civic dignitaries and officials, the Catholic Church and the local police force. These people were involved in sex crimes, prostitution, fraud and burglary. No one was immune from this regime of corruption. Military police were sent from the protestant north to put an end to this criminality, a decision that in fact escalated the bloodshed in the area because of the conflict between the different religions. 

 

The Gang of Oss.

At the centre of our story is Johanna van Heesch, played by the bewitching Sylvia Hoeks, who runs the local café/bar. She is the daughter of Mein de Snol (Juul Friday) and half sister to the mentally retarded Trees (Maria Kroakman). Her husband Ties (Schoenaerts) is an aggressive and violent man who on his release from prison sets out to change his former way of life, but before long he’s back pimping his wife, drinking heavily and resuming his employment with Wim de Kuiper (Marcel Musters) self declared leader of the local criminal gang. But Johanna, who is now pregnant, wants to protect her unborn infant from Ties violent outbursts and break away from her unsavoury life. The only fall proof way of doing this is to arrange for her husband to be killed, and to this end teams up with the only man who can read and write in the town, the well to do insurance broker and the gangs book keeper Harry den Brock (Frank Lammers). But before things can get any better her half sister is put in danger and the head of the MPs is shot down and killed. 

 

Johanna and Ties.

This award winning Dutch language movie is one of the best crime thriller’s I have seen for a long time. Its exciting, very well acted by a cast I can guarantee you will not recognise, but certainly will want to see more of, especially Sylvia Hoeks, an actress that is very well known in her home country due to her appearances on Dutch TV. The period detail is great and its Dutch settings are authentic.  For some strange reason this movie has not been released in the United Kingdom but can be purchased thru Amazon as an import. Unfortunately the extras on the two disk Blu-ray are not undertitled, but this will not spoil your enjoyment of this splendid film, which does include undertitles.

http://youtu.be/ryhNkjjLoSw

Het Diner (The Diner).

This very dark drama directed and written by Menno Meyjes, a respected screenwriter who was responsible for the award winning script for The Colour Purple (1985) and also worked with Steven Spielberg on the film Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989), was adapted from the Dutch best seller Het Diner by Herman Koch. The novel had sold in excess of 500,000 copies and won the Dutch audience award NS Publieksprijs before it was decided to make it into a movie.   

The Brothers.

Serge (Daan Schuurman) invites his brother (Jacob Derwig) for a meal in an upmarket restaurant where apparently he is very well known. Joining them is Serge’s wife Babette (Derwig’s wife Kim van Kooten) and Paul’s wife Claire (Thekla Reuten who had a leading part in The American 2010 with George Clooney).  They talk about all sorts of things including work, the latest movies, the war in Iraq and this year’s holiday plans. They avoid however what Serge has invited them to talk about in the first place: the actions of their two sons Michel and Rick. We gradually learn what they have done and how it could potentially destroy not only their freedom but also Serge’s candidature for a very high position in Dutch politics. We observe these four highly intelligent people gradually pulling each other to pieces. 

The wife's and mothers.

The question asked in this cleverly written big screen drama Het Diner (2013) is one which most parents get to ask them selves at sometime in their parenthood, but hopefully not having to deal with quite an horrendous deed - what would you do, and how far would you go to save your offspring? Made on location in Amsterdam which offers up some beautiful night time photography. My only problem with this film is that it does not ring true, by this I mean would you go to a crowded restaurant where your very well known and discuss a private matter whose repercussions could be immeasurable?  The answers probably no, but if you can get over this plot detail I think you will enjoy a powerfully entertaining 88 minutes from a very professional cast of actors.