FILM REVIEW
by Rei Xia, member of the Canada-Philippines Solidarity Organization (CPSO)
Equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, My Friend the Terrorist: A Tale of Love and Revolution paints a profoundly human face to one of the most advanced ongoing national liberation movements in the world today, in spite of the “terrorist” designation imparted by their government. Created by Malcolm Guy (alongside Demetri Estdelacropolis), a solidarity activist who supports the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) from abroad, the documentary film illustrates the lives of the late Jose “Joma” Maria Sison (1939-2022) and his wife, Julie de Lima (84), two eminent Filipino revolutionary figures living in exile in the Netherlands. Produced amidst another ongoing liberation struggle in Palestine in which resistance forces and solidarity organizations alike have earned a similar “terrorist” designation from the very same forces which drive their oppression, MFT reaffirms the rightfulness and righteousness of the international peoples’ armed struggle, shines a light on the material forces which propel them to take up arms, and offers a window unto the thoughts, feelings and everyday lives of those embroiled in the fight for collective liberation.
Narrated throughout by Malcolm, MFT tells the story of Joma and Julie in both past and present, granting a window into their contemporary life in exile in Utrecht while also recounting moments across their storied lives, ranging back to their days as classmates in university. The film takes us on quieter moments with the pair as they reflect on the passing of time since their exile during a riverside walk, while livelier scenes depict Joma participating in karaoke, one of his favorite pastimes, while attending peace talks with the Philippine government in Oslo. The two eponymous “terrorists” are far more approachable than such a designation misleadingly suggests; full of heart and parents to four children, Joma and Julie feel like they could be anyone’s beloved uncle and aunt.
With mind to illuminating the full breadth of the human experience, which MFT seeks to reassert with respect to figures categorically dehumanized by their oppressors, these lighter moments counterbalance the painful reality of the tripartite problems that afflict the Filipino people – US-led imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism – which brought Joma and Julie into revolutionary struggle in the first place, and which eventually led to their lifelong separation from their home country. Footage of government violence resembles many of the scenes that come out of Palestine today, as the film displays a brutal crackdown against workers striking for higher wages at a sugar plantation; bodies are carried as those demonstrating flee gunfire hailing from a blockade of military personnel. As these harrowing scenes illustrate, the broad masses in the Philippines not only live precarious lives while struggling to secure liveable wages, but furthermore are denied the right to advocate for themselves and are faced with incredible violence and persecution when attempting to do so.
On the retaliatory end of the struggle is the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the NDFP, which boasts 25,000 members and the task of serving the people as its core mission. MFT also gives a voice to these combatants, who share a story and a struggle with Joma and Julie and continue their fight back home. Far from a malicious group of extremists, the NPA is made up of common people with sincere causes and motivations; mutually helped and supported by the people of the countryside, members express their desire to help others in interviews throughout the film, and describe camaraderie with those around them as their inspiration to persevere through hardships. Their families worry for them, but a tearful reflection from two parents shows sympathy and understanding for their child’s participation in the movement. Despite fraudulent descriptions of them by the government as a “spent force,” MFT provides a testament to the strength, commitment, and sincerity of the NPA, which continues to wage protracted people’s war from the countryside while offering essential services to the people that the government fails to provide.
As a ready contribution towards the tradition of Third Cinema, MFT combats the dominant narratives that stigmatize armed resistance against oppressors by unravelling the real situation in the Philippines and reaffirming support for peoples’ liberation by any means necessary. Described by Solanas and Getino as the “decolonization of culture,” and in direct contrast to the paradigmatic “First Cinema” reproduced by and encoded with the values of bourgeois society, Third Cinema elevates the role of the filmmaker as a revolutionary as its central tenet. Created by activists, MFT is a work which not only documents the Philippine Revolution but stands in solidarity with it, and furthermore highlights the importance and urgency of internationalism in an increasingly turbulent present as repression intensifies across the globe. By engaging emotionally with its subjects, MFT resoundingly proves the humanity of revolutionaries who fight to build a better future, and testifies to the significance of dedicating one’s life to the ongoing lineage of revolutionary struggle. ###
Related topic: Review by Lui Queano – My Friend the Terrorist, and here in Pinoyabrod Canada.