27/03/2025 - Daan Veldhuizen’s documentary is part-historical recap, part-personal investigation of colonial and imperial violence in West Papua

“There are four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth and what really happened,” goes a well-known quote by Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Dutch filmmaker Daan Veldhuizen uses this conceit to structure his newest film, The Promise, which centres on the titular promise of West Papuan independence, as made by its then-coloniser, the Netherlands. As one might guess, that “vow” was never kept, and history began to repeat itself. The Promise opened the 17th Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague, where it is competing for the Grand Jury Documentary and Justice Frame competition prizes.

Veldhuizen’s nearly two-hour documentary begins from the emotional viewpoint of Dutch individuals with heritage and roots from West Papua, many of whom play active roles in today’s movements of awareness and independence. But first, he has to start with the basics, using a huge swath of dramatically restored archival footage to explain the centuries of Dutch presence on the island of New Guinea (West Papua is the western part of the island), and the heavy exploitation of the indigenous population disguised as a classic case of “education” and “the white man's burden”. This first section, which highlights the Dutch colonial viewpoint, is staggering in terms of the rhetoric and material that are heard and shown.

At the halfway point, the film begins to turn into more of a historical documentary, revealing a very complicated colonial and imperial past after World War II and into the Cold War era. As the Indonesians advocated on both the local and diplomatic levels for the Netherlands to cede colonial control, this led to a series of international negotiations helmed by the USA that eventually resulted in Indonesian control of West Papua. Through the decades, many have seen Indonesia’s management of West Papua as extremely oppressive, filled with mass killings and human rights abuses that some organisations today view as genocide.

From an educational standpoint, Veldhuizen is very successful: he is notably very perceptive when it comes to highlighting these repeated acts of ignorance. Incredibly, many Dutch people have no idea of the history that exists or that West Papua was even a colony, and today, people around the world hardly seem to know (or care) about the egregious acts of violence still being committed in West Papua. The more difficult part is keeping the narrative clear for a place with such a complex historical and political landscape; the director’s four-part framing device is creative but ultimately serves little function. Granted, it’s never didactic, but two hours feels remarkably long for a film in which we never directly learn the names of our informal Dutch guides of Papuan heritage. Although this leaves an affective gap between the viewer and the interesting subjects, you’ll likely come away feeling motivated to empathise and learn more – Veldhuizen cracks that egg wide open.

The Promise also raises questions around how archival material is used and modified. It appears that there is no reenacted footage, but audio segments of Dutch statements are vibrant and crisp, making it unclear whether these were read from statements or otherwise recorded. It becomes clear that the visual segments are heavily colourised and restored in a way that involves some sort of smoothing: the credits point to AI image optimisation by the director himself, and there is a whole team of investigative and archive researchers listed. The uncanny audiovisual feel often also detracts from the otherwise deeply intense material that, as Veldhuizen suggests, reveals a history we all should really care more about.

The Promise is a Dutch production by Witfilm. Its world sales are up for grabs.