Prisoner / Terrorist

More than 30 years after his previous directorial effort, Adachi brings us a film about psychological digression loosely adapted from a text by Auguste Blanqui and no doubt inspired by Adachi’s personal experiences. M., a member of the Japanese Red Army, is the only surviving perpetrator of the suicide operation at the Lod airport in Israel in 1972. He begins to lose his composure during his incarceration and begins to see the spectres of the revolutionary ideal in his daily hallucinations. Instead of partaking in the stigma that often marks terrorist prisoners detained in Israel, "Prisoner/Terrorist" is first and foremost a brave exploration of the human soul’s meandering into a state of permanent revolution. With this film, Adachi completes Wakamatsu’s "United Red Army", who also makes a discreet appearance alongside his favoured musician, Jim O’Rourke.