Imelda

I first heard about Imelda (2003) as part of the research David Byrne was doing for what would become Here Lies Love the musical he created with Fatboy Slim about the former Filipino first lady. I have visited once and have been interested with the country due to America's connection first as a colonizer and later as home ot military bases, well-chronicled by Stanley Karnow in his Pulitzer winning history, In Our Own Image. The film is a further indictment of how a populist ruler and his family emptied the coffers of their struggling third world country--certainly not the only country nor the first. It shows a woman in complete denial or living in a delusional reality in which she is hounded for serving her country.