Met ons alles goed

In the years that Rien Kuyck, her husband Gerhard and their children live in Batavia (1924-1930), she writes more than three hundred letters to her parents. They were preserved, like the footage the family shot in this period. The images are of an exceptional quality and, combined with the letters, they provide a personal perspective of colonial life at the time. With the same dedication with which Rien writes her letters, Gerhard captures everything happening around them. Initially family scenes, but soon he 'specialises on making typically Indonesian shots.' The letters and films disclose the daily concerns about the children or servants, but also larger, more universal themes: alienation, the arrival of new communication techniques and finally the emancipation of the Indonesian people. 'In the old days, a native would think twice before addressing a Dutch woman', Rien concludes in one of her last letters, right before they would return to the Netherlands.