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Through historical footage, letters and his own images, Karel Doing reconstructs the journey his fallen uncle Ed made as a soldier in the late thirties to the oil-producing island of Tarakan.
What did the streets of the Indonesian city of Surabaya look like in 1938? How rusty were the tankers in the Red Sea in those days? Does that Dutch lift bridge in Borneo still exist? Filmmaker Karel Doing treats the spectator to historical footage from the vaults of the Filmmuseum to illustrate the journey to the oil-producing island of Tarakan near Borneo that his uncle Ed made as a soldier in the late thirties. Doing followed the tracks of his fallen uncle, on the basis of the letters the latter left behind, showing his personal journey with his camera in hand. Gradually, the tropical heat becomes tangible, as does the horror of the onrushing war at the time. The cannons that uncle Ed and his company loaded are still standing, all rusty and tarnished. Doing turns on his heels and quickly leaves this `end of the world', by plane this time.

Credits

Director
Producer
Executive producer
Scenario
Production company
Eye Filmmuseum
Doing Film
Distributor NL
Filmmuseum Distributie

Title: Een ontdekkingsreis naar Tarakan
Year: 2002
Duration : 47 minutes
Category: Short Documentary
Edition: NFF 2003

NFF Archive

You are now in the NFF Archive. The archive contains contains information on film, TV and interactive productions that were screened at past festival editions. The NFF does not dispose of this material. For this, please contact the producer, distributor or broadcaster. Sometimes, older films can also be found at the Eye Film Museum or the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

Stills

Still