Nick Schager - Film review: Portrait of the Female Donald Trump

By Dilip -
A disheartening reminder that in-your-face criminal activity perpetrated by democratically elected presidents isn’t merely the province of Donald Trump, The Kingmaker details the attempts of Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, to get her son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. elected vice president. It’s a mission complicated, of course, by the fact that Imelda and her husband, the late president Ferdinand, were as crooked and ruthless as they come, having bilked their country out of billions for their own personal lavish-lifestyle gain from 1965 to 1986, and also persecuted opponents (under the guise of anti-communist crackdowns) through the institution of martial law. As Lauren Greenfield’s sharply critical and deeply distressing documentary elucidates, the past is never truly past, especially when the sins of the father are allowed to go unpunished.


Greenfield’s film (in theaters Nov. 8, following its Nov. 6 screening at the DOC NYC festival) is bolstered by considerable access to Imelda, who at 90 years old, remains as extravagant and entitled as ever, posing for the camera in a regal gown amidst the many opulent works of art that decorate her apartment. The Picassos and Michelangelos on her walls—which, we later learn, she’s deliberately hid from investigators—are clear indications that, despite efforts to reclaim the vast sums of money she and her husband stole from public coffers, Imelda continues to profit from her misdeeds. She also remains repulsively haughty, handing out cash to the poor in a show of kindness that comes off as from-on-high condescension, and casually ignoring an employee who’s cleaning up the broken-glass mess she’s made by knocking over a picture during an on-camera interview....
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kingmaker-a-scathing-portrait-of-the-female-donald-trump-imelda-marcos-of-the-philippines?ref=scroll

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