Gesneuveld

Twenty-five Dutch soldiers were killed during their mission in Uruzgan. Other missions followed. It is the task of the company welfare department of the Ministry of Defence to be the first to inform relatives when their son, daughter, brother or sister has perished. After Uruzgan, the department has only expanded. Robert Oey talks to a number of staff members about the sensitive but essential task of conveying the bad news as carefully as possible. Surviving relatives explain how they experienced that decisive moment and the loss of their loved ones. Oey does not want to question the mission as such and never moralises. With due equanimity, he registers deeply personal experiences, together constituting an intimate requiem for the fallen.