'Soldier' Makes Love, Not War

directed by Roeland Kerbosch

starring Maarten Smit, Andrew

Kelley and Jeroen Krabbe

at the Harvard Film Archives

February 4, 5 and 6

At the beginning of the new Dutch film "For a Lost Soldier," Jeroen Boman (Jeroen Krabbe'), a famous choreographer, is having trouble with the creation of his new ballet based on the American liberation of the Netherlands. Jeroen has run out of inspiration. However, the death of his wartime foster father forces Jeroen to confront what happened to him as a child during the liberation. Jeroen's sentimental journey serves as the core of a lyrical and affecting film.

During the Winter Hunger of 1944, children from the ravaged west of the country were taken in by farmers and fishermen in the northern province of Friesland, where food was plentiful and the German presence slight. 12-year old Jeroen (Maarten Smit) goes to live with Hair (Feark Smink) and Mem (Elsje de Wijn). Smit and director Roeland Kerbosch do a good job of depicting Jeroen's multifold alienation. Though his mother has sent him to Friesland for his own good, Jeroen feels abandoned by her. He finds himself a city kid in the country, where everything, even the language, is different.

The audience can feel Jeroen's desperation at being trapped in a picture-perfect family where everyone has red-cheeked country soul brims with strapping good health. Little by little, however, Jeroen adjusts. Though this first part of the film covers familiar territory, Kerbosch's understated direction renders a potentially hackneyed situation fresh. Kerbosch adds lovely grace notes, such as Jeroen's discovery of a downed Allied plane in the sea, and takes full advantage of the luminous and austerely beautiful Friesian countryside.

However, the film really finds its stride in the second half. As puberty begins, Jeroen realizes that he is attracted to men, but he finds no one with whom to share his feelings. Meanwhile, Canadian soldiers arrive to liberate the village.

The soldiers dazzle everyone. Their uniforms, their weapons, their language, their music and their CocaCola and cigarettes impress the villagers. One particular soldier, the handsome Walt Cook (Andrew Kelley), catches Jeroen's attention. Walt becomes Jeroen's friend, and in a striking scene, teaches Jeroen how to dance to jitterbug and the jive.

The scene serves as the emblem for the movie. As Walt lifts and tosses Jeroen in the air, it is apparent that Walt signifies liberation in more ways than one for Jeroen. As their relationship matures, Walt provides Jeroen with his first sexual experience. The film-makers handle sensitive material with great dexterity and honesty, expertly portraying the problems of communication. Not only do Walt and Jeroen not speak the same language, they don't even have the language to express what they are. Walt speaks of being "different," and says to Jeroen that when he saw him, he knew that Jeroen was his "kind of guy."

As the film winds down to its bittersweet conclusion, one can't help but be amazed at Maarten Smit's achievement. Smit, trained in a special acting school for children, is brilliant. Jeroen Boman is a difficult role to bring off, but Smit succeeds spectacularly. He reminds one of Jodie Foster in "Taxi Driver." Trained as a classical ballet dancer, this is Andrew Kelley's debut as an actor, and it shows. However, this works to the film's advantage, since Walt is really a symbol, magnified and perfected by Jeroen's memory. Feark Smink does a marvelous turn as Jeroen's foster father.

The only problematic piece of casting is Jeroen Krabbe. He is a star and his participation no doubt helped finance "For a Lost Soldier," but somehow he does not mesh with the child Jeroen. After Smit's wonderful performance, it is a letdown to see Jeroen grow up to be the gruff and temperamental choreographer played by Krabbe.

"For a Lost Soldier" is not particularly profound, but it remains a marvelous film. Its elegiac and celebratory quality is reminiscent at times of the Taviani Brothers' "The Night of the Shooting Stars." Kerbosch has carefully adapted Rudi van Dantzig's autobiographical novel into a sensitive, lyrical film, resonant with truth and the burnished memory of a first love.