Back in the days of 35mm productions, being a filmmaker in certain countries was a rather hard experience. The biggest difficulty to overcome was a lack of a film lab. This meant a director would have to mail their shot negative to another country and wait days for the one light print to arrive to get a sense of what they had shot a week or longer before. A director could be in for a major shock if a reel had gone bad. This shipping bill added even more costs to the production budget. We no longer have these problems locating a film lab in the digital age. Your lab and editing equipment is your laptop. You don’t worry about shipping and storing 35mm film. I bring this up because back in the mid-’70s, Pim de la Parra wanted to make a film about his birth country Suriname that was about to receive independence from the Netherlands, the country he lived in. His movie Wan Pipel (One People) was the first major motion picture shot in the South American country. He went through a lot to make this personal movie.
The movie starts with a text scrawl that gives us a short history of Suriname. It’s pointed out that the country became an independent republic in the Fall of 1975 after being a Dutch colony for 300 years. The South American nation has an immigrant population of Dutch, Indian, Indonesian and Chinese ancestry. While the official language is Dutch, half the population speaks a local variation of Hindi. A woman dying in Suriname has one request; she wants to see her son Roy (Borger Breeveld). This is a bit tricky since he’s in Holland working on his degree at a university. He barely has enough cash to cover his books. His Dutch girlfriend Karina (Willeke van Ammelrooy) offers to not only give him the money to cover a very expensive plane ticket, she’s willing to do something drastic to cover his return passage. At first he protests since he feels like a parasite taking so much from her. But she is willing to do this for his mother’s last wish. He returns home just in time. After the funeral, Roy finds himself roaming around the city and reconnecting to his old life. This includes meeting a local nurse Rubia (Diana Gangaram Panday) who is Indo-Surinamese Hindu. This isn’t an easy things since the black and Hindu communities are in a bit of conflict as self-rule arrives. His own family is not in favor of him being with Rubia. Is he going to stay in his country or return to Holland to finish his academic work? What about his girlfriend Karina? In order to complicate things, Karina flies over to see Roy after hearing stories about his family and Suriname. She going to be happy if he doesn’t fly back with her?
Wan Pipel uses Suriname as a guiding element for the characters. This isn’t just Pim de la Parra shooting in an exotic location with a script that could have been shot in the Philippines or Toronto. The country plays a role. The tension between the Dutch, the blacks and the Hindu citizens is always there so this isn’t just a romantic story of a guy returning to his home country to find love. Roy faces the same stares he gets for dating a Dutch woman when he is out with Rubia. Her father isn’t thrilled that she’s hooking up with Roy and is on the verge of disowning her since she’s breaking her mother’s heart. None of Roy’s choices are easy because of culture or distance. Pim de la Parra really does make a film about Suriname as the first movie made in the country of his birth. Wan Pipel makes us fall in love with Suriname as Roy must decide where his heart will end up.
The Video is 1.66:1 anamorphic. The restored 2K transfer brings out the beauty of Suriname. When Roy’s visiting the market place, you will get hungry. The Audio is LPCM 2.0 Mono and DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono in Dutch. The soundtrack is clear. The movie is subtitled in English.
Audio Commentary with Lex Veerkamp & Bodil De La Parra has them recount what it took to make the film. Bodil is director Pim de la Parra’s daughter. They point out that Willeke Van Ammelrooy’s parents play her character’s parents. They talk about Suriname – Holland travels. We get context for life in the country and the music on the soundtrack. Bodil was around during a lot of the shooting. She points out a scene that had over a 100 takes for a non-Stanley Kubrick reason.
The Making of Wan Pipel (24:30) has a news reporter explaining from a beach how this is the first movie made in Suriname and the release will be timed with the independence of the country from the Dutch. There’s lots of behind the scenes footage from a party scene with Pim de la Parra working with the actors and crew between takes.
Interview with Willeke Van Ammelrooy (38:04) has her talk about getting involved in movie acting.
Aah… Tamara (26:57) is a short film about a student who works as a guide on a tourist boat going around Amsterdam. She’s constantly being hit on by visitors to her city, but has a boyfriend. He fears she’ll cheat on her. The movie is shot in black and white and color. There’s a lot of beautiful views of Amsterdam.
Photo Gallery has over a dozen images of the poster and press photos.
Scorpio Films Trailers includes Wan Pipel, Dakota, Frank & Eva, My Nights With Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julia, Obsessions, Blue Movie and Pastorale 1943.
Cult Epics present Wan Pipel. Directed by Pim de la Parra. Screenplay by Rudi Kross & Lou Lichtveld. Starring Borger Breeveld, Diana Gangaram Panday, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Emanuel van Gonter, Ro Jackson-Breeveld, Sieuwpal Soekhlall & Bhagwandei Mokkumsingh. Running Time: 111 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: May 27, 2025.
