Dutch Indies, second part of the 19th century. The farmers watch the coffee trade flourishing in the colonies. A newcomer resident assistant, the idealistic Max Havelaar, can't accept the extreme poverty and exploitation the local people live in, and hoping to change the living circumstances, he denounces the miserable conditions by the local powerful figures. The film directed by Fons Rademakers and based on Gerard Soeteman's screenplay, is freely inspired by the renowned work known as Multatuli, sent to press in 1860 by Eduard Douwes Dekker. Nowadays this multi-awarded film still doesn't stop giving rise for controversial issues due to the approach to the colonial question, and still it is the most successful film homage to the literary work considered the masterpiece of the Dutch literature of the 19th century.

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay Gerard Soeteman
Montaggio / Editing Fons Rademakers
Interpreti / Cast Peter Faber, Sacha Bulthuis, Adendu Soesilaningrat
Produzione / Production Fons Rademakers, Jakarta Film
Anno di produzione / Year of production 1976
Durata / Running time 170’
Formato / Format 35mm

Fons Rademakers

Alphonse Marie Rademakers, born 1920 in Roosendaal, started his career as actor and theatre director. Dorp Aan De Rivier (1958), the first movie he directed, was also the first Dutch movie ever nominated for an Academy Award. In 1986 he won the Foreign Language Oscar for De Aanslag, after a novel by Harry Mulisch. In Flanders Rademakers' 1971 movie version of Stijn Streuvels' novel De Teloorgang van de Waterhoek caused a shock in conservative circles. Rademakers' forte were literary master pieces in Dutch language, such as Als twee druppels water (1963), after Hermans' De donkere kamer van Damocles) or, less acclaimed, Mijn Vriend (1979), linked to the then notorious Jespers trial). The English-language drama The Rose Garden was his last movie, in 1989. He also produced his films, as well as his spouse Lili Veenmans's. He died on February 22th 2007.