{"id":2550,"date":"2024-12-16T14:23:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi-monde.ca\/en\/?p=2550"},"modified":"2024-12-18T14:25:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T19:25:16","slug":"review-by-owen-toews-of-my-friend-the-terrorist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multi-monde.ca\/en\/review-by-owen-toews-of-my-friend-the-terrorist\/","title":{"rendered":"Review by Owen Toews -My Friend the Terrorist"},"content":{"rendered":"

An elderly couple in puffy, glistening jackets stroll along a seaside boardwalk on a wintry day. In a forlorn caf\u00e9, they sit gazing through rain-speckled windows at the icy sea. On a canal, they visit a cartoonish replica Noah\u2019s Arc sporting slight, mischievous grins. Ascending the deck, husband and wife dutifully trod a maze of wooden ramps designed for hoards of tourists who are nowhere to be found. The couple are exiles, banished for the past thirty-seven years to lonesome, dreary Europe from the revolutionary Third World.<\/p>\n

They are Jose Maria Sison and Julie de Lima, known by some as \u201cthe Philippines\u2019 most famous leftist couple,\u201d and they are the subjects of the delightful, stirring new documentary My Friend the Terrorist<\/em>. Sison, a university professor, has been called \u201cthe Che Guevara of the Philippines.\u201d In 1969, Sison founded both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People\u2019s Army. The latter has waged guerilla warfare against US imperialism and the capitalist Philippine state ever since. My Friend the Terrorist <\/em>swings potently between vignettes of Sison and de Lima\u2019s placid, solitary life in Utrecht and convivial scenes from the hectic shared life of the autonomous territories currently held by the New People\u2019s Army.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Julieta de Lima and Jose Maria Sison have photo taken with Johan Huibers (centre), who built a full-scale interpretation of the biblical Ark.<\/p><\/div>\n

The latter are the true heart of the documentary. Through one-on-one interviews and group shots of community celebrations, military drills, and medical clinics we meet a quirky, earnest community of armed struggle walking the road that Sison and de Lima helped make for them decades ago. Far from dogmatic or domineering, the film makes the communist revolution in the Philippines seem flexible, useful, and resonant. People are making it their own. \u201cThere are lots of Indigenous women taking up arms because they are being exploited, like our Mamanwa tribe,\u201d says a young paramedic. \u201cI took up the challenge to heed the call of the people\u2019s revolution so I would be able to stand up for my dignity as an Indigenous person and help my own people, the Lumads.\u201d Another interlocutor, sitting with her husband and infant child, speaks of struggle as a way of life that spans generations. \u201cAs parents who are revolutionaries, what we wish for our children, who, like us, are victims of exploitation and oppression, is that they be part of the movement for liberation, that they too become revolutionaries,\u201d she says. \u201cOur challenge to the children who can understand, is to take the road that we have built for them.\u201d As Sison and de Lima tinker quietly in grim surroundings, the matter of roads \u2013 and bridges \u2013 looms large.<\/p>\n

To be sure, we do see present-day Sison and de Lima engaged politically – attending peace talks, making political speeches into their computer cameras. But it is tempting to translate their exile as something that tethers them to a past moment of struggle. Of the several love stories the film – billed as \u201ca tale of love and revolution\u201d – beguilingly tells, the one that comes across most poignantly is not the romance between Sison and de Lima.<\/p>\n

It is the love story between Sison and de Lima on one hand, and the younger revolutionaries of the Philippines, on the other. The final scenes of the film are dedicated to heartfelt messages of gratitude transmitted to Utrecht from the autonomous territories. The footage leaves us with the distinct, exhilarating feeling that a revolution can be something that exceeds a mere decade, generation, or even one long lifetime. After witnessing the commitment of the young guerillas to the ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that Sison and de Lima left for them, it begins to seem that a revolutionary period often relegated to the 1960s and 1970s may only be getting started.<\/p>\n

By Owen Toews**
\nDecember 11, 2024<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>**Owen Toews lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a descendent of Russian Mennonites. He was trained as a geographer at the City of New York Graduate Center and is the author of the award-winning work of non-fiction Stolen City: Racial Capitalism and the Making of Winnipeg<\/em>. His other works include a novel, Island Falls<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An elderly couple in puffy, glistening jackets stroll along a seaside boardwalk on a wintry day. In a forlorn caf\u00e9, they sit gazing through rain-speckled windows at the icy sea. On a canal, they visit a cartoonish replica Noah\u2019s Arc … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview by Owen Toews -My Friend the Terrorist - Multi-Monde EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/multi-monde.ca\/en\/review-by-owen-toews-of-my-friend-the-terrorist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review by Owen Toews -My Friend the Terrorist - Multi-Monde EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An elderly couple in puffy, glistening jackets stroll along a seaside boardwalk on a wintry day. 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