Indië Verloren... Selling a Colonial War

The film shows how, under the guise of “police actions,” politicians managed to sell this conflict to the public, and why there was no attention given to the violence on the other side during the Bersiap period. Internationally renowned historians from Indonesia, Australia, the United States, and the Netherlands share their insights into this complex history. Indië Verloren... places this war and its history, for the first time, in the international political context of the time, and reveals how the various narratives continue to resonate to this day.

Organized in collaboration with Pennings Foundation
From 15 August to 22 November 2025, Pennings Foundation will present the photo project Mijn liefste Teun by Tahné Kleijn, inspired by the diaries of her grandmother, who was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. In addition, they will exhibit portrait photographs of former forced laborers by Jan Banning from his acclaimed series Traces of War.