The Clearing

She soon realizes that she has landed in the reign of terror of the “white suits”: where primeval forests are cleared to make way for rows of rubber trees, and Dutch colonists treat migrant laborers like slaves. The sexual exploitation of female workers was an open secret, concealed behind euphemisms and carefully crafted propaganda.

Filmmaker Sabine Groenewegen unearths the stories of many women whose very existence was erased from the history books. She begins with her own great-grandmother, Helena, a woman never spoken of within her family, and with a female character who was excised from the Dutch feature film Rubber (1936). Groenewegen’s meditative, forensic investigation navigates between ghosts and entrenched narratives, archival footage and new cinematography, historical sources and a reality hidden within fiction. Through a feminist and postcolonial lens, the film reveals how recorded history is refuted by that which was systematically kept out of sight.