De dream The film De Dream is peculiar because of the fact that it uses the Frisian language (with Dutch subtitles). The Frisian are a nation of several hundred thousand people in the north of the Netherlands. The region tends to impoverish, since it could never free itself from its agricultural background. Therefore it is particularly gratifying to see a Frisian film about the Frisian history. The narrative targets social and judicial injustice. Since the society had always been agricultural, there never was a clash of classes. However, the farm workers had a hard and poor life, and therefore were susceptible to anarchism. At the end of the nineteenth century they were the founders of the Dutch socialist movement. Hence the title of the film: The (red) dream. In fact these workers called their first great socialist leader The Saviour.The narrative describes the social developments during this turbulent and remarkable period. A gentleman-farmer becomes the victim of a burglary, and the wrong-doers shoot one of his personnel, which seriously wounds him. The burglars were masked, and therefore could not be identified. Three brothers of the Hogerhuis family become under suspicion, but the evidence is at best circumstantial. The social relations reflect the strange habits, which tend to grow in closed agricultural communities. Wiebren, one of the brothers, had regularly slept in the farm, apparently in order to protect it from robbery. He seized the opportunity to have sexual intercourse with the maid-servant of the farmer, even after the burglary. However, the servant also pondered on a wedding with the gentleman-farmer. Eventually the farmer, the servant and the wounded worker bear witness that they had recognized the voices and the attitude of the Hogerhuis brothers during the burglary. The brothers are eventually convicted. It is interesting, that the advocate of the brothers was Troelstra, the man who would later become the leader of the Dutch socialist movement (see for instance the film Nynke). The narrative does not tell, whether the Hogerhuis brothers were the real wrong-doers. However, it provides clues that three other men had been involved. In addition it suggests, that the socialist inclination of the Hogerhuis brothers had an effect on the investigation of the police and directed the sentence by the judge. Which is highly plausible in view of the class justice of the time. In fact one of the Frisian socialists defected to the USA, and from there wrote a letter, that he had lent his dark lantern (found on the crime scene) to one of the three other men. The case was brought to the High Court, but the evidence was such a mess, that the Court decided to support the original verdict. Clearly the film propagates the message that the evidence was insufficient to put the Hogerhuis brothers in jail. It succeeds in grasping the living conditions of the primitive agricultural community. The geographical conditions (sea climate, and therefore much fog and rain) help in creating a desolate and mysterious atmosphere. It is an interesting and recommendable, albeit somewhat depressing and disagreeable, experience to watch the human relations in De Dream unfold.
