Operation Hellfire - Het Nationale Theater | Eric de Vroedt

The response from Washington followed very quickly. The American Service-Members' Protection Act is activated: a law that protects Americans by all means against prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Even if that means an attack on the Netherlands. The ICC refuses to bow down. The tension is rising, the world is watching, the pressure on The Hague is increasing. How far does the Netherlands dare to go to defend peace and justice?

This 'cannot' be true
With Operation Hellfire, director Eric de Vroedt makes a political satire in which law, power and morality collide hard. A 'what-if' that comes frighteningly close to reality. You will see Soumaya Ahouaoui, Gustav Borreman, Tamar van den Dop, Jouman Fattal, Hein van der Heijden, Yamill Jones, Yela de Koning, Rick Paul van Mulligen, Mika Peeters and Emilio Pramatarov.

Director Eric de Vroedt: “Especially now that the international world order seems to be faltering, we must ask ourselves: how fair is international law actually? And does it work equally well for everyone?”

The Hague Invasion Act
In reality, America does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC and therefore refuses to cooperate in investigations. When it was founded in 2002, America responded with a striking law: the American Service Members Protection Act. This law gives the American president the right to use “all means necessary and appropriate” to free Americans or their allies who are on trial at the Criminal Court in The Hague. The law was therefore popularly nicknamed “The Hague Invasion Act”.

People in The Hague have been working on international law for more than 100 years and there are approximately 500 international organizations in the city. The Hague therefore calls itself 'the international city of peace and justice'. In Operation Hellfire writers Joeri Heegstra and Max Wind ask the question: how far is the Netherlands willing to go to realize those ideals?