When we think of revolutions, we often overlook the friendships that fuel those rare seismic shifts in society. Yet friendship and revolution are inextricably linked in the fabric of people’s struggle for social transformation. We know of Marx and Engels’ strong intellectual affinity and how their collaboration and friendship resulted in some of the most significant works in the history of socialist thought and proletarian struggle.
Less well-known is the bond between Mao Zedong and Canadian medical doctor and revolutionary internationalist Norman Bethune, who perished on the front lines of the Chinese revolution. Chairman Mao expressed remorse at his death for having sent only one letter to Bethune, which he was unsure was received and read, while receiving numerous letters from him. “My Friend, the Terrorist : A Tale of Love and Revolution” (2024, henceforth MFTT) belongs to this great heritage of comradeship as a vital component of building with a revolutionary movement in the periphery of global capitalism.
Joma Sison and Julieta de Lima in the Netherlands,
Julie & Joma
A documentary film by Malcolm Guy and Demetri Estdelacropolis, “My Friend, the Terrorist” features the late Jose Maria “Joma” Sison (1939-2022), a towering figure in Philippine revolutionary thought and the movement for national democracy toward socialism. Yet from the film’s first scene, it is evident that it is as much about Julie de Lima (84) who emerges not merely as Joma’s wife and companion but also as a formidable figure in her own right. Often overshadowed by her husband’s prominent role in building the Philippine revolutionary movement, Julie’s integral contributions to the revolutionary cause are illuminated in ways that only this medium can capture.
MFT tracks Julie and Joma in their daily routines in Utrecht, Netherlands, where they have lived in exile since 1987 following the collapse of the Peace Talks with the Aquino administration. Joma had already spent a year on a lecture tour in Europe when he received notice that his passport had been revoked and that he faced charges under the Philippines’ Anti-Subversion Law.
In one scene, Julie tinkers with computer hardware while Joma stares at the PC screen, following the karaoke lyrics to a famous Pinoy love ballad that he shares with their documenter. In another sequence, the couple visits a small museum of fake animals that are made in the Philippines. The owner expresses his museum’s aim to protect biodiversity in a world that is currently facing significant dangers. When Julie is asked about her dream, she gives a simple and short answer, making it sound like the revolution is the common air we breathe. The film covers Joma and Julie’s experiences in exile, illuminating a narrative rich with resilience and defiance.
Third Wheel, Third Cinema, Third World
MFTT provides a cinematic visual experience that flows with the momentum of the actual conditions confronting the Philippine revolution. It approaches this from the viewpoint of a narrator who is also one of the filmmakers, Malcolm Guy. He is the voice that third-wheels in those Joma and Julie moments, as well as in the viewer’s encounter with selected characters and places that cradle the national democratic movement. A long-time activist for Philippine concerns in Canada, he also served as the General-Secretary of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), with Joma as the League’s founding chair. This aspect is crucial in terms of locating MFT within one of the cinematic field’s movements called Third Cinema.
Third Cinema is an important film movement that emerged amid political upheaval and cultural transformation, particularly following the Cuban Revolution. This movement was defined by its commitment to addressing the socio-political realities of marginalized communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Filmmakers aimed to develop a cinematic language that diverged from the conventional narratives of Hollywood (First Cinema) and European art cinema (Second Cinema). They stressed the importance of films depicting the real experiences of the oppressed class, which, as MFT effectively demonstrates, is also a fighting class.
Through their aesthetic choices, Malcolm Guy and Demetri Estdelacropolis’ film bridges art with activism, addressing themes like colonialism, imperialism, and poverty while intertwining these issues with the Filipino people’s fight against systemic injustices and the fostering of Third World revolutionary consciousness. The urgency and importance of this approach cannot be overstated.
At a time when revolutionary movements are confronting heightened fascist and imperialist assaults not just from US-led western imperialism but also from counter-revolutionary forces that also engage in information warfare, Malcolm’s narration serves as a voice of reason against the distortions and outright lies leveled against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The segment that follows the development of the Peace Talks between the National Democratic Front (NDF) of the Philippines and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) under the Duterte administration is quite revealing.
Malcolm’s 2016 interview with Rodrigo Duterte is perhaps the only one of its kind. Here, the infamous tyrant president throws shade at the Philippine fascist establishment and recounts a part of his history as a student who gained insights into social injustice from his college instructor, Joma Sison. Duterte subsequently outlines, albeit somewhat vaguely, the potential for peace talks while highlighting his opposition to the armed component of the revolutionary struggle.
It is such an interesting connection. Yet, anti-communist bashers conveniently deny Joma’s influence as a leader who had galvanized many people across classes and generations towards varying degrees of and persistence in dissent and critical thinking. They distort his foundational role in revolutionary mass movement building in the Philippines, which was unquestionably the source of his prestige and credibility, by repeating a ridiculous falsehood that the CPP supposedly formed an alliance with the US-Duterte regime, thereby failing to oppose its fake and violent war on drugs. The reality is that it was the slain CPP-NPA-Mindanao leader Jorge Madlos who first emerged from the revolutionary underground to openly denounce Duterte’s fake war on drugs in July 2016. Furthermore, the first mass demonstration against Duterte’s drug war was spearheaded by the national democratic urban poor coalition, KADAMAY, during the same time frame.
MFTT prompts its viewers to follow and understand the Duterte regime’s descent into fascism. With Duterte’s unilateral scuttling of the Peace Talks, his administration garnered global attention and criticism for its brutal policies, particularly its war on drugs, which led to thousands of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders, primarily from poor and vulnerable communities. State repression during this period also targeted farmers. MFT’s extensive footage of the Hacienda Luisita massacre demonstrates that the Philippine oligarchic state’s scandalous disregard for the rights of farmers and its consistent prioritization of corporate interests over the livelihoods of those who feed the nation, a problem rooted in the enduring structures of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism, which both precede and (re)produce the Luisita tragedy across various regions of the country.
However, for MFTT, the Third World cannot simply be a tragedy. Malcolm’s narration takes us to the heart of the Philippine countryside, where struggles for land and justice unfold daily, and comrades embody a tenacious spirit that resonates deeply with the revolutionary ideals espoused by Jose Maria Sison. Here, we gain insight into Filipino armed revolutionaries, activists and their friends as they give their very best cultural performances in celebration of the CPP’s anniversary. Here, ordinary people facing significant adversities—ranging from systemic oppression to personal sacrifices— forge ahead, united by a shared vision of empowerment and social transformation.
MFTT films them as they send their warm greetings and pay tribute to Joma and Julie, not only in recognition of their roles in shaping their revolutionary consciousness but also to express how they have pursued collective action in the pursuit of liberation, mindful of their victories, often hard-won against daunting odds. These serve as testaments to their resilience and unwavering commitment to Sison’s legacy. At this point, it is evident that it is not just Malcolm’s voice affirming camaraderie with the beloved “terrorist,” but also the latter’s very people from across the miles.
The mass character of the new democratic revolution is also visualized through footage of huge protests organized by the aboveground urban-based national democratic movement. During a large demonstration opposing the 2015 APEC gathering in Manila, MFT highlights Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled as she speaks to her Filipino comrades who marched against APEC, emphasizing the demand for a system that values people over profits: “The voice of the people is always higher than all the leaders of the world.”
Jose Maria Sison
Internationalism in the Age of Imperialism
To watch it all unfold in a documentary film is not merely another feat in Third Cinema’s obscure yet critically acclaimed status in the cultural field. MFTT is both a theoretical and practical exercise in understanding the assignment, so to speak, in this dark era of imperialism.
How so? First, it confronts the realities of national oppression in the Philippines as a consequence of capitalism and US-led imperialism. Secondly, and as a result of the first point, MFTT recognizes that the urgent task of revolutionary internationalists within the imperial core is to act uncompromisingly against US imperialism in the interest of the peasant-worker alliance at the periphery, which fights against oligarchic US puppets, big bourgeois compradors, and landlords as the revolutionary movement advances in resisting all forms of national tyranny and oppression.
Shaped by the spirit of revolutionary internationalism that understands and amplifies the aspirations of nationalism and class struggle in a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society like the Philippines, MFTT embodies the sensibilities of Third Cinema but undoubtedly extends beyond cinematic boundaries as it becomes itself a weapon for class war. In this combat zone, revolutionary international solidarity asserts that the terrorist designation on the late Jose Maria Sison, his comrades, and the CPP-NPA-NDF is a US-led imperialist and fascist crackdown on the people’s war for national liberation and socialism in the Philippines.
Scratch the surface of the Terrorist’s friend, and you will find a precious comrade. ###
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*My Friend The Terrorist is produced by Canada-based Productions Multi-Monde (2024). For more information https://multi-monde.ca/en/my-friend-the-terrorist-a-tale-of-love-and-revolution/
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Sarah Raymundo: Faculty, University of the Philippines-Diliman Center for International Studies, President of the Philippines-Bolivarian Venezuela Friendship Association and International Liaison Officer of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance).
This post is also available in — FR — .
