Hoe duur was de suiker

a historical drama. not better or worst by many others. its virtue - to remember a page from the Modern history of Netherlands. its sin - the too obvious feminist manifesto message. and the desire to explore a too large field of problems, proposing , not always, the best solutions. the seductive parts are the same from the other historical dramas giving stories from territories overseas. the mixture of exoticism and clash between cultures and Manichean portraits. the last thing is the source of "like too many others" as conclusion about this series. because, in fact, only bad thing in this case is the difference between a generous subject and the easy story , pink and real too sentimental, ignoring the rules proposed in the first part for the end "ad usum Delphini". but it is a nice film. and this could be the only significant thing about it.

"Hoe Duur Was De Suiker" offers a peek into a dark part of Dutch history; it is the 18th century in Surinam, former colony of the Netherlands, where wealthy white families keep black slaves to work in their houses or on their fields. Little rich girl Sarith grows up in luxury, with her own slave Mini-Mini by her side. As Sarith and Mini-Mini grow older, their different societal positions as slave-owner and slave is what both binds and separates them.

This film could have been a great way to make Dutch audiences aware about the history of slavery and move them with the main storyline. Although the scenery, decor and costumes are beautiful and credible, the plot, script and acting is anything but convincing. The shallow storyline makes it hard for the viewer to relate to the main characters and the overall story. This also has to do with flimsy lines and bad acting (especially Gaite Jansen) - which sometimes looked surprisingly clumsy in comparison to the detailed and polished backgrounds. Unfortunately, this film fails to convince and to move, and thereby misses a great opportunity to produce a film worthy of incorporating into Dutch film canon.

The plot of this movie sounds interesting, at least because it's about an era not often portrayed on films: it's the late 18th century, and we are in the Dutch colony of Suriname, where Dutch colonists live in luxury on their sugar plantations along their long suffering African slaves. Just outside the plantations, in the jungle, are the maroons (escaped slaves) resisting the Dutch. The girls in the plantations are oblivious to this or to the exploitation of the slaves and play their silly games of love. Sarith (Gaite Jansen, overacting) is the most beautiful girl in the colony. Mini- Me (Yootha Wong Loi Sing) is her personal slave and also her half sister. In the end, the movie is a bit long, and Sarith antics end up being tiresome. Note: apparently this was a Dutch miniseries (I guess this is more bearable to watch in shorter segments) while I watched a 120 minute version.

In the 17/18e century The Netherlands was an imperialistic nation with colonies oversees. The film starts as a story about a slave girl born out of a slave woman and a white "Massa" in Suriname. That sets expectations.

What could have been a story about a history that hardly gets attention with the good and the bad aspects, seen through the eyes of a slave girl, is in my view is filmed from white women's perspective. There are parts that cover freedom fight and slave struggle in Suriname but overall the film feels like a mediocre period drama with a female main character that is somewhere between Lily of the House of Mirth and Madame Bovary in an exotic country. Nice but a missed opportunity.

My sister recommended this movie and it was everything she said it would be. I'd never seen a movie from this era based in South America - and it's a good historical look into the Dutch colonies and slave trade, which many people wouldn't learn much about.

Watching a story set in this time period and following the life of a slave is usually an exercise is masochism. You know that historically, life was not good for slaves, so how can this possibly end well? Luckily in this film things went better than expected.

I would love to see more films on this topic, especially ones that people can watch without having to bring tissues along. I love a film with good plot that also teaches me about history.

Also, the diverse languages shown in this movie is something very rarely seen in big movies. I'd love to see more of it, as I didn't feel it actually took anything from the story or the dramatic feeling and it helped place the film in context.