In an age of anti-heroes, Max Havelaar is uncompromisingly old-fashioned: a man of integrity and courage, a kind of Don Quixote who starts out naive and remains incorruptible as he battles exploitation in the Dutch East Indies in the 19th century. Sent to Lebak, Java, as the supervisor of local authorities, Havelaar cannot help noticing that undernourished natives are slaving there under the barbaric rule of local princes. What he is slower to realize is the complicity of the Dutch government and the indifference of the Church to the misery he finds. As his protests find their true targets, another layer of institutionalized corruption is revealed: Havelaar, it seems, is in danger of being poisoned, as his outspoken predecessor was.
Max Havelaar is the creation of Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker, whose semi-autobiographical novel, published in 1860, is credited with significantly changing attitudes in the Netherlands toward colonialism, and with producing some reforms in the harsh Dutch rule in Indonesia. Holland's foremost filmmaker, Fons Rademakers, put Max Havelaar on film in 1976; his epic, shot on location amid the lush swamps and farmlands of Indonesia, remains true to the spirit of the novel. Actor Peter Faber has been hailed for creating an unusually believable epic hero.