“The East” (original title: De Oost) is a Dutch war film directed by Jim Taihuttu and written by Mustafa Duygulu and Jim Taihuttu.
The film is set in the Dutch East Indies of 1946 during the Indonesian National Revolution. The story revolves around a young Dutch soldier, Johan de Vries, who is deployed to suppress post-WWII independence efforts in the Netherlands’ colony of Indonesia. He finds himself torn between duty and conscience when he joins an increasingly ruthless commander’s elite squad.
The film was originally scheduled for theatrical release on 10 September 2020, but due to delays incurred by COVID-19, the release was postponed until 13 May 2021, alongside a release on Amazon Prime Video. The film was released in theaters on August 13, 2021.
The film has received mixed reviews, with an IMDb rating of 6.9/10. It has been criticized for its depiction of the Dutch intervention in Indonesia.