After four centuries of shared history, almost 10% of Dutch people have Indian blood in their family. In the cinematic documentary ‘Traces of Indies’, presenter Hans Goedkoop brings national history to life through the historical intertwining of the East Indies and the city of Amersfoort, just another city in the middle of the Netherlands.

Producer Reda van der Putten worked for two years on the preliminary research. Presenter Hans Goedkoop wrote the script and presents the documentary. Many aspects of Indian influences on the complete Dutch society are covered: The Indos, the Moluccans but also the veterans and the Totoks, the plantations and the boarding houses.

Check out the trailer:

Former soldiers tell, sometimes for the first time, about their experiences around this secret port on the Rhine.

The Defence Harbour was part of the IJssel Line: a Cold War waterline that had to protect the country against a possible invasion by the Soviet Union. The IJssel Line and with it the Arnhem harbour were extremely secret until the end of the Cold War. Stories about this time are therefore very scarce.

And the stories that are there, are still unknown to many people. The documentary ‘Geheim aan de Rijn’ changes all that. For the city of Arnhem, Erfgoed Gelderland interviewed former soldiers who witnessed this hidden history.

Alletun Productions compiled the interviews into a unique documentary.