De scheepsjongens van Bontekoe

"De Scheepsjongens van Bontekoe" ("The ship-boys of Bontekoe") is an entertaining adventure of three boys who travel to the East-Indies and back in the 17th century. The movie takes you to Batavia with all kinds of adventures on the way, and it shows that you can achieve anything if you really want to. The main characters Hajo, Padde and Rolf also show that friendship makes you stronger. The journey of Bontekoe really did happen, but the story of the boys is fiction. The movie is based on a Dutch youth novel by Johan Fabricius, a popular book ever since it was first published in 1924. Although everyone in Holland knows the plot of the story, the movie is still very entertaining because of the acting by the main characters. Especially Billy Zomerdijk plays a admirably clumsy Padde, who did not really want to go to sea. The film crew was able to use the replica of the Batavia, a ship of the same period, and together with all kinds of anecdotal incidents, the feeling of see travel in those days is convincingly visualized.

A must see for every boy and girl who wants to see the book in action, and for everyone who is fond of the Age of Sail.

As stated elsewhere, the film Storm Bound is based on a famous Dutch book for young adults called "The Cabin Boys of Bontekoe", which in turn is based on the journal of the historical captain Bontekoe who sailed for the Ducth East-Indies Company. The book dates from the end of the colonial era and breathes its world view, so the Dutch are presented as masters and the natives of Indonesia as subjects. This world view was not suitable for a 21st century film, so the film makers adapted the plot.

Unfortunately, they went totally overboard and dumbed down the story to a flick for small children, in which the only bad guys are grown ups, to be exact the Dutch merchant and his criminal side-kick. The natives are peaceful children of nature (and incidentally are very clearly NOT natives of Sumatra, where that sequence is supposed to play out).

On the plus side, the actor playing Bontekoe does a decent job and the replica Eastindiaman presents an interesting platform for many of the film's scenes.