Soldier’s Bones

Kasper Verkaik – The Netherlands, 2026 – 90 minutes – spoken language: English, Vietnamese, with English subtitles

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.

This feature film in the Movies that Matter on Tour series will be introduced and followed by a discussion. Subtitles and discussion in English.
With the On Tour program, Movies that Matter organizes screenings with in-depth programmes in The Netherlands and online. They do this in collaboration with a diverse array of organizations and companies. Among other things, they also organise the annual Movies that Matter festival in The Hague.