SOLDIER OF ORANGE [dutCH: SOLDAAT VAN ORANJE] 293
girlfriend. Some become collaborators; others join the Dutch Underground. Part of
the story is set in London, where Queen Wilhelmina is living in exile during the
war. Erik and Guus start a friendship, and Guus offers him housing in a private
student dormitory in Leiden. In this house, the students (Erik, Guus, Jacques,
Jan, and Alex) drink and toast their friendships. On 3 September 1939, a BBC
radio broadcast interrupts the students at a tennis match, announcing that the
United Kingdom has declared war on Germany. At first the students take the
news lightly, believing that the Netherlands will likely remain neutral. Jan (a Jew)
and Alex leave to enlist in the Dutch army. On 10 May 1940, Germany invades
the Netherlands; Erik and Guus attempt to enlist, but they are rejected. Four days
later, after the “Rotterdam Blitz,” the Netherlands gives in. Erik and Esther have
an affair. Robby uses a radio transmitter to get in contact with the Dutch re sis-
tance in London and set Erik up on a plane to join the group. Jan stands up for a
Jewish salesman by fighting some anti- Semites and finds himself in hot water, so
Erik gives his seat on the plane to his friend. Unfortunately, as they are being picked
up, the pair fight with German soldiers and Jan is taken. Erik manages to escape,
and upon meeting Alex at a military parade, discovers that Alex has joined Hitler’s
SS. Eventually, Erik is also imprisoned. Once captured, Jan tells him that an indi-
vidual named Van der Zanden (Guus Hermus) is the traitor in London. The Gestapo
executes Jan at the Waalsdorpervlakte, a desolate spot in “Meijendel” dune area,
The Hague. The Gestapo discovers Robby’s radio and blackmails him to work as a
double agent (his fiancée, Esther, is a Jew). Meanwhile, Erik, having been released
from jail, joins up with Guus and flees to London on the Swiss cargo steamer,
St. Cergue. In London, Erik meets Van der Zanden and discovers that he is not a
traitor but actually head of the Dutch Central Intelligence Ser vice. Erik returns to
the Netherlands to retrieve a group of re sis tance leaders. However, they find Robby
amidst the group on the beach; the Germans have found the group, but Erik is
unable to warn them about Robby. Meanwhile, en route to the beach, Erik sees
Alex at a party, then eventually leaves the party and escapes to the beach to meet
his fellow re sis tance members. When Robby realizes that Erik knows that he is
working for both sides, he fires a signal flare and runs away. While the re sis tance
group attempts to make an escape, their leaders are shot and killed. Guus and Erik
flee by jumping into the sea, but only Erik makes it to the British ship and returns
to London. Guus later encounters Robby on the street and kills him. Guus is then
apprehended and killed for his crime. Alex is killed by a hand grenade thrown by
a small Rus sian child who he mocked and refused to feed earlier in the day. Erik
becomes an RAF pi lot, flies combat missions over Germany, and then becomes
Dutch Queen Wilhelmina’s assistant. Erik follows the queen back to the Nether-
lands after the war. The film ends with Erik re united with Esther, whose hair has
been cropped short as a punishment for her collusion with the Nazis. Erik then
toasts the end of the war with another student, Jacques ten Brinck (Dolf de Vries),
who also managed to make it out alive.
Reception
Soldier of Orange had its world premiere in the Netherlands on 22 September 1977.
Though the film would do well in terms of international box office receipts, it met