Soldier’s Bones

In 1971, young Newsweek reporter Alec Shimkin discovered a secret US military campaign that committed war crimes on an enormous scale in the Mekong Delta. It was code-named Operation Speedy Express. Following the 1968 My Lai massacre on Vietnamese civilians, Alec believed this “Super My Lai” also had to be exposed.

For months Newsweek refused to publish the investigation, under intense government pressure and self-censorship by the magazine’s editors. What was meant to be a major coverstory was eventually cut down to a small article that made no impact at all. Gone were all the Vietnamese eyewitness testimonies Alec had painstakingly collected.

Soon after Alec himself disappeared. He has been missing-in-action ever since. What story did we miss? How did Alec’s childhood obsession for war help him to find the truth behind Speedy Express? ’Soldier’s Bones’ reconstructs Alec’s fact-finding mission by boat along the endless waters of the Mekong Delta, in search of Speedy’s deadly echo.

Regisseur

Kasper Verkaik

Kasper Verkaik began working as a freelance journalist during his studies in Communication Science and produced several radio documentaries for the Humanist Broadcasting Foundation. In 2007, he transitioned to television, creating documentaries for both VPRO’s Holland Doc and Tegenlicht. In 2009, he was accepted into the new Master’s program at the Netherlands Film Academy. Under the guidance of experienced filmmakers such as Petra Lataster and Marjoleine Boonstra, Kasper worked on various student projects in both documentary and fiction.

Filmography: Dear Oprah (VPRO, 2008), The Voice of Generation Obama (VPRO Tegenlicht, 2009), Restart Detroit (VPRO Tegenlicht, 2010), Transition NL: The Seeds of a New Netherlands (VPRO Tegenlicht, 2013), Daddy Doll (Doc25, 2013), Plaza Man (IKON, 2014).