The Forgotten Battle trailer: The Dutch-Belgian war drama has no place for a ‘boy to act the hero’

The streaming giant Netflix is exploring more and more international and local content, and a noteworthy inclusion in the list is Matthijs Van Heijningen Jr.’s war drama The Forgotten Battle.

“Van Staveren, you will be transferred to Holland,” says the captain of the Dutch Axis soldier, played by Gijs Blom, as an opening to the gripping trailer of the war drama. The drama brings forth the Dutch perspective and their part in World War II, which has not got its due in cinematic representation compared to the US narratives.

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Amid booms, blasts, firing, and scenes of war-torn ravages, Tom Felton, who plays Tony Turner, says, “In war, there’s no place for a boy to act the hero.” The trailer runs in stitches through the overarching plot, setting the scene for the film when it drops on Netflix for global cinephiles. The film is set in 1944 during the Second World War. The Battle of Scheldt was instrumental in allowing the Allied Forces to liberate Holland from Nazi Germany. Ten thousand lives were lost in the devastating battle in the war for the Scheldt Estuary. The film zeroes in on a triptych of leads, a Dutchman fighting on the side of the Germans played by Gijs Blom, a British glider pilot played by Jamie Flatters, and a local girl, played by Susan Radder, who is involved in the resistance movement to fight against Nazi Germany. The Forgotten Battle, courtesy of its triad of leads, can be safely said, explores what ‘Liberation’ means, from opposite ends of the spectrum, ultimately coming down to the futility of war, as is mouthed by a Dutch soldier in the trailer, “The stupid war will end soon.”

Watch the trailer here.

The film features an international cast with Gijs Blom, Jamie Flatters and Susan Radder in the lead roles. Tom Felton, well-known for playing Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter film franchise, also stars in the film alongside Jan Bijvoet, Coen Bril and Theo Barklem.

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A whopping €14 million reportedly went into its production, making it the biggest Dutch film of the decade, and the second most expensive Dutch film ever made after the 2006 war film Zwartboek.

The Forgotten Battle premiered in Vlissingen on December 14 last year. It was scheduled to hit the big screen in the Netherlands a few days after the premiere but was pushed back to June 5. The official announcement of the release date of the film on Netflix is awaited.