hooftr Review of Nova Zembla

Nova Zembla (2011)

A decent movie that however sails in shallow waters

[6/10 · 12 June 2020]

This movie tells the story that every Dutch schoolchild knows, namely their young country's heroic efforts to discover a Northeastern sea route to 'The Indies', in 1596-7; the Siberian route, if you will. If you ever wondered after whom the Barents Sea was named, watch this movie. This production clearly did not benefit from Cameron's 'Titanic' budget. It is not a bad movie, but it could have been much better with more effort to add historic depth. The real tragedy of the story is that nobody understood what the warm Gulf Stream was (is) doing. Sure, you can sail straight up into the Arctic from Holland, up to Spitsbergen and have fun catching whales. But sail east from there (or try the Northwest passage, through Canada) and you will quickly freeze to death. Of course you cannot use this given in the movie itself, but you could explain the accident of geography in the introduction. The simplifications made in other aspects are, again, not irrelevant. We learn that Barentsz had made two earlier attempts to made this trip. What had happened? What did he learn? Also, this convoy consisted in reality of two ships, not one. The movie says that sailors were eager to join the expedition. How much were they paid- and what were the risks? How was the expedition paid for, since the trips were no longer subsidized, but relied on a Prize if successful? We only learn that the surviving men were not paid. We are told that the conventional route that rounds the African Cape of Good Hope was impossible because Portugal was in the hands of archenemy Spain. Couldn't one simply give the Iberian peninsula a wide berth? Presumably, the real reason was that all the African trading posts were now in Spanish hands, but this is not explained. Moreover, at the very end of the movie we learn that de Houtman just had made the Southern trip to the Indies. Given smooth sailing, how many days would a Northern trip to India last, as compared to the Southern one? Clearly the Dutch were not nearly as ignorant as Columbus had been, but what did they know exactly- show us where their maps went blank! In fact, there is a map from 1664 showing details of the west of Nova Zembla, going completely blank on the east side. It also falsely suggests the island is connected to the mainland at its southern tip, perhaps explaining Barentsz' northern attempt. The movie also shows no map for the route of how the men escaped, using rowing boats. We know they were finally rescued on the Kola Peninsula, a huge distance. As others have noted, there are some anachronisms in the movie (like the church organ). The rough bar scene in Amsterdam depicts a liberal, tolerant, cosmopolitan society, but this probably only developed in the next (17th) century, after the events in the movie, when Holland became a World power (until it was invaded simultaneously by England, France and German states in 1672, ending the party). On the ship there are hints of religious tension between the Protestant captains and crew members who were (crypto-)catholic, like the fanatically catholic Spaniards. In reality the Dutch Revolt (aka the Eighty-year War) was simply about stopping Dutch money flowing to Spain- religion was mostly an excuse. Ironically it would then be the liberated Dutch who would colonize and exploit the Spice Islands, eventually, Indonesia and join the slave trade. Admittedly it is not easy to interweave all this background into the story but if you have a tight budget you can (should) make more of an effort to work on presenting historical context.