The Forgotten Battle (2020)

Title: THE FORGOTTEN BATTLE (De Slag om de Schelde)
Genre: World War II Drama
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Language: English (with Dutch, German accents)
Setting: Autumn 1944, Scheldt Estuary Region, Netherlands

ACT I: INTRODUCTION & SETUP

Scene 1: The Quiet Before the Storm

• Location: A rural Dutch village near Antwerp, late September 1944.

• Visual (turn0image1): The film opens with a wide shot of a fog-drenched estuary. In the distance, Allied gliders drift silently above muddy fields. The sky is alive with the muted drone of aircraft.

• Action & Characters:

  • Marinus van Staveren (portrayed by Gijs Blom), a young Dutch railway worker turned resistance courier, carefully navigates through deserted backroads. He carries a hidden radio transmitter in his satchel—his secret link to British Intelligence.

  • William Sinclair (portrayed by Jamie Flatters), a newly minted British glider pilot, peers out the small window of his Horsa glider. Below him, marshes and dikes stretch as far as the eye can see. His orders: secure a crucial bridge over the Scheldt River to allow Allied supply ships into Antwerp.

     

  • Kerstin Müller (portrayed by Susan Radder), a 19-year-old Dutch woman, watches Marinus from a distance. Though German troops occupy her town, she collaborates clandestinely with the resistance, determined to help liberate her country. 

     

Scene 2: Tensions Rising

• Location: German defensive positions along the Scheldt’s muddy banks.

• Visual (turn0image0): A platoon of German soldiers marches toward earthworks, their uniforms muddied by constant rain. Trenches and barbed wire snake across soggy fields.

• Action & Characters:

  • Jäger Karl Müller (portrayed by Tom Felton), a young German soldier recently drafted into the Waffen-SS, struggles with conflicting loyalties. He wears his helmet too large, the insignia glinting under gray skies. His orders: hold the line at all costs.

  • Tension simmers between Karl and his commanding officer, Hauptmann Stefan Müller (not related), who views the Dutch as traitors for resisting German rule. Karl hesitates when asked to execute terrified Dutch civilians caught aiding Allied soldiers.