Anak Indië

After World War II, it is estimated that some 300,00 people were forcibly repatriated from the former Dutch East Indies. This, of course, had everything to do with Indonesia's independence. All in all, there are now more than two million Dutch people with roots in the former colony, including Indo-Dutch, Moluccans and Peranakan Chinese. For these people, it meant a new beginning in a country that did not always welcome them with open arms.

Director Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, best known as producer of her brother Leonard Retel Helmrich's films, shows in this humorously told documentary what that new beginning looked like. She does so using collage animations, archive footage and, of course, the stories of people who lived through it, including Yvonne Keuls, Adriaan van Dis, Wieteke van Dort, Claude Vanheye and Thé Tjong-Khing. However uprooted some people felt, it becomes clear that Indies heritage is deeply woven into Dutch society.