Documentary series · NTR · NPO 2
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De Reis van de Indiërs · season 2
In this three-part series, presenter Narsingh Balwantsingh, himself a descendant of Indian indentured labourers, goes in search of what remains of that era, and of the contact between those who left and those who stayed behind.
Broadcast in June 2023 on NPO 2 by the NTR, in three half-hour episodes.
Letters across the ocean
Those who left India as indentured labourers left family behind on the other side of the world. Letters were often the only connection, and sometimes all that is left of a family history.
The series follows that thread: what was written, what was left unsaid, and what of it lives on in Hindustani families in Suriname and the Netherlands?
Archive and now
Archive footage and new material are interwoven. Old photos, film clips and documents sit alongside today’s conversations, so that a history from more than a century ago becomes a story about people now.
How did the indentured labourers stay in touch with their families? How were the ties with the motherland and Indian traditions kept alive in the new homeland?Brieven aan de achterblijvers
What remained
Narsingh talks with Hindustanis in Suriname and the Netherlands about what came along from India: in language, music, film, food and rituals. From Bollywood in the living room to Holi in the street.
The design
The visual style of the series draws on paper, ink and texture: letters, stamps and handwriting form the layer over which archive and new footage blend into each other.
Credits
- Directing and editing
- Rogier van der Voort
- Presenter
- Narsingh Balwantsingh
- Production
- Moondocs
- Broadcast
- NTR · NPO 2
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