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News reports and films dealing with the return of soldiers to locales where they served in difficult circumstances, often to exorcize old demons and to come to terms with former enemies, are no longer uncommon; one need only think of the poignant, frequently uplifting accounts that have appeared of American veterans revisiting Vietnam following the normalization of relations. This documentary, co-produced, co-written and directed by Martin Spirit, treats of a similar subject, though on a smaller scale. It centers on the return of a group of erstwhile British Marines to Limbang, a modest riverside town on the northern side of the island of Borneo (now Sarawak), where they had landed in December 1962 to rescue a group of hostages–mostly British, but including one American–who had been seized by a group of rebels seeking to liberate the area from western control. The raid, which required the men to use local craft to mount a dawn assault, succeeded in freeing the captives, but resulted in loss of lives on both sides, and one of the most affecting moments comes when Brian Downey, an ex-Marine who lost his closest buddy in the mission, meets with Salleh Sambas, the former rebel leader. As is usual in such circumstances, the old animosities fade. Another powerful contribution comes from a friend of the American hostage, a Peace Corps volunteer who’s no longer alive.

Spirit, working with co-producer and co-writer Nicholas van der Bijl and co-producer Tim Nagle, has constructed a clear, sometimes moving account of this largely-forgotten incident in late colonialist history. He uses archival footage, background material, interviews with survivors (both Britons and Borneans) as well as the ex-Marines (and their commander Captain Jeremy Moore) and contemporary coverage (nicely shot in HD by director of photography Bill Elliott) to fashion a crisp narrative of the decades-distant episode, nicely blended with an overview of the men’s return.

“Return to Limbang” is narrated, sometimes a bit haltingly, by Major General Julian Thompson, a brigade commander during the Falklands War and military historian, and it must be admitted that the language seems directed more at British than American audiences. That becomes even more apparent in an explanation of what the Peace Corps is that would be unnecessary on this side of the Atlantic but is probably obligatory in the UK. Nonetheless this professional, sometimes touching 72-minute film does a fine job of recreating a little-known episode in post-war British history and situating it in modern perspective.