Friday, March 03, 2017

Absent without leave

Taiwan, Malaysia 2016

Details Taipeiff
Seen 3 March 2017













My impressions

A quest to find the reasons why his grandfather was a missing piece in the family’s photograph leads a man to a nation’s past.

Interviews, recollections of the past. Those who lived during those tumultuous decades. These are heroes, martyrs to some but traitors and murderers to others.

The other side of the story, the struggle for independence. Usually we get the victor’s version. In this film, we hear and ponder the lives of those who were pursued. They started young, idealistic, patriotic even.

Most of them are in their twilight years and their story must be told and aired. The other side of the coin. Might not be pleasant, as atrocities were committed in the name of the struggle. But definitely, food for thought.

Not the textbook version of those years.