Van Smyrna naar Holland in oorlogstijd De Aarde en haar Volken, 1917

A young Dutch woman, who has spent three years living on a quiet estate near Smyrna, is finally called back home as the war that surrounds her deepens. She watches the daily rhythms of a troubled countryside—shepherds, swarms of locusts, and the forced displacement of Greek villagers—while the distant thunder of artillery grows louder. The invitation to return arrives in a hurried letter, and she must say goodbye to the friends and kindness she has found in a land far from the Netherlands.

Joined by a reluctant military escort, she embarks on a cramped Ottoman railway, sharing a carriage with strangers whose cultures clash and mingle. As the train snakes through dusty plains toward Constantinople, conversations shift from heated political tensions to poetry and personal stories, offering brief moments of humanity amid uncertainty. The journey promises both the comfort of familiar promises and the unsettling reality of a world at war.