Twenty-year-old soldier Johan de Vries from Arcen is sent to Semarang, where the Dutch army says it is to liberate the Indonesian people from the authority of Sukarno.
Johan then accompanies Westerling on a perilous journey deep into enemy territory to take out guerrilla fighters, making his first victim in the process.
He hardens and the corps becomes increasingly alienated from him: his comrade Mattias Cohen is startled when Johan shoots a guerrilla fighter in cold blood.
He told the soldiers himself that his entire family had died, but in reality his father is serving a prison sentence in Vught because he was a prominent member of the National Socialist Movement during World War II who was responsible for the deaths of more than a thousand Jews.
In writing the screenplay, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies were consulted for historical facts,[3] and a conscious effort was made to find a co-production partner in Indonesia.
[3] Producer New Amsterdam intended to set up a major information campaign about the Indonesian War of Independence in collaboration with, among others, the East West Foundation and the Indies Remembrance Center.
The organizations accused the filmmakers of 'historical inaccuracies' and made a critical comparison between the Dutch soldiers in The East with the military of Nazi Germany.
[9] Critic Gudo Tienhooven of the Algemeen Dagblad awarded the film four stars: "The cinematic class certainly drips from it, the atmosphere is sultry and the acting is sublime.
"[12] De Volkskrant reviewer Berend Jan Bockting also gave the film four out of five stars: "Taihuttu shows in great detail how moral awareness can evaporate under specific circumstances, how thoughts about good and evil can be suppressed in favor of war logic.
"[13] Critic Remke de Lange of Trouw gave the film three out of five stars: "The structure of the screenplay by Taihuttu and Mustafa Duygulu is solid.
Kenzari's role as a mysterious, eloquent leader who brings horror to others makes The East's release – as a starting point for discussion – commendable.
Abrams criticised Taihuttu and Duygulu for indulging in the "chauvinistic mentality" of the main protagonist Johan Jr. and presenting the Indonesian natives as "meek victims."
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Westerling?wprov=sfla1 In actual history, Raymond Westerling died on Nov.26, 1987, of congestive heart failure, in Purmerend, in the province of North Holland.