Wan Pipel (One People)

With all due respect to published authors, master painters and struggling ceramicists, there’s a reason why film is the most impactful art form of the modern era. Let’s face it, if archeologists had a choice between studying a clay pot from an ancient civilization or a 90-minute movie from the same, they’d choose the movie every time.  Film captures the era in which it was made like no other form of creative expression. But it’s up to the filmmaker to point the lens in the right direction. Pim de la Parra’s Wan Pipel (1976) manages to capture a country in transition, where social and political evolution are occurring so quickly even its own population can’t keep up.

Returning to his home country of Suriname to console his dying mother, Roy (Borger Breeveld) finds it an exciting change from his studies in the Netherlands. The food, music, clothing and a Hindi nurse named Rubia (Diana Gangaram Panday) entice him to extend his stay indefinitely.  But their relationship seems doomed before it even starts with both families angrily rejecting their interracial romance. Things go from bad to worse when Roy’s Dutch girlfriend, Karina (Willeke van Ammelrooy) arrives to fight for her man.

Essentially a mixed-race Romeo and Juliet, de la Parra’s film would be fairly trite if not for its unique setting and special cast.  The first Surinamese film shot after the country negotiated its independence, Wan Pipel (which translates to One People) proves that Dutch influence was still firmly entrenched despite a multicultural population of ex-slaves, plantation workers and immigrants who suffered from their own well-worn prejudices. Even with a new flag, old attitudes are much more difficult to change.  And escape to the Netherlands is the golden ticket.

So Roy’s cultural rediscovery amounts to a personal revolution; and his choice of Rubia over Karina is as much an economic rebellion as it is a romantic one. If all that makes Wan Pipel sound like a political thesis statement, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  It’s a personal story that manages to wrap even its secondary characters into the narrative with warmth and charm played by actors who you never catch “acting.” Like the best of Shakespeare there’s plenty of comedy to go along with the tragedy. But if he was around today, probably even the bard would be making movies.

Another great Dutch import from Cult Epics (catch up on their Marleen Gorris trilogy when you have the chance), the Blu-ray features a restored 2K transfer,  audio commentary, introduction from the late Pim de la Parra, Making Of, interviews, trailer and bonus short film Aah…Tamara (1965).