The best Dutch drama of the past year is emphatically concerned with the past.Take the three series that were nominated for Best Television Drama. DirtyLines (about the sexline industry of the 1980s), The Year of Fortuyn and_disaster flight_. And then we call the non-nominated The Spectacular (aboutthe IRA attacks in Limburg in the 1980s). disaster flight eventually won theGolden Calf. Thank you, but The Year of Fortuyn came off very poorly, ifonly because Ramsey Nasr and Fedja van Huêt were not even nominated. In allthese series about recent historical periods, a mirror to the present-dayNetherlands is held up; everything may have changed, but have we learned thehistorical lessons?
disaster flight is a penetrating five-part drama series about the Bijlmerdisaster; a disaster that continued for years after the cargo plane of theIsraeli company El Al crashed in the middle of the Amsterdam Bijlmermeer.Screenwriter Michael Leendertse bases his story on the work of twoinvestigative journalists, Pierre Heijboer of de Volkskrant (Yorick vanWageningen) and Vincent Dekker van Fidelity (Thomas Höppener), who saw theirprofessional suspicion about the course of events rewarded years later with aparliamentary inquiry. The third leading role is played by Joy Delima as AshaWillems, a veterinarian from the Bijlmer who makes it a mission to link themysterious diseases that plague the Bijlmer after the disaster with themismanagement of the Dutch authorities.
Delima does not play a historical figure, but is more a composite of activistand other inhabitants of the Bijlmer, who continued to fight to hear the truestory, in particular about the dangerous cargo of the cargo plane. Leendertseprobably looked closely at the HBO series Chernobyl , another disaster witha different aftermath, but there too an unlikely duo of men, based onhistorical figures and a ‘composite’ female character (Emily Watson) who doesmedical research. You can choke on such an example, but _disaster flight_succeeds excellently in increasing the tension for five episodes.
The disaster itself is modest but very effectively portrayed in a few images;a terrifying side view from a window as the plane lands, and a plume of smokein the distance, from Schiphol’s control tower. There are two journalists whosink their teeth deeper into the case than most of their colleagues. And inboth cases, their professional perseverance grows into an obsession that theeditors of the various newspapers no longer know what to do with. Someeditorial scenes feel a bit short sighted, but in general the series seems tohave captured the journalistic atmosphere of the nineties well.
Van Wageningen plays Heijboer as an old lion who once again seizes theopportunity to grab a big story, while the Vincent Dekker of the excellentThomas Höppener, a man with all kinds of nerdy knowledge about runways andflight routes, is precisely the young guy who finally want to prove. Withoutbeing helped by any diplomatic talent. In both cases, they also have somethingto prove on their own editorial board. After all, Asha Williams (Joy Delima)is the character who keeps drawing attention to the victims, behind thepolitical machinations. In a strong supporting role, Gijs Scholten van Asschatis the leader of the official investigation from the Rijksluchtvaartdienst; arole that here also represents administrative arrogance in the past and