What’s in the past? New Imelda Marcos film offers her version of the Philippines history.

MANILA: Is Imelda Marcos – formidable even at age 90 – rewriting history? A new documentary suggests the widow of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos is trying very hard to do so – and not merely to gloss over excesses from diamonds stuffed in diapers to access to 170 bank accounts.

The Showtime production, set to open on Nov 8, depicts a woman intent on whitewashing the past for a path to power for her only son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, 62. He’s expected to make a bid for the presidency in 2022 after losing a race to be vice president in 2016.

Being president is his “destiny”, the former first lady said in the film.

“Perception is real, and the truth is not,” Imelda said in the film. “So the past is past. There are so many things in the past that we should forget. In fact it’s no longer there.”

A 2013 Bloomberg News story about a Philippine island safari – complete with animals brought in from Africa by the Marcos family – was the original idea for the film. But instead of opening with giraffes and zebras, The Kingmaker started with Imelda in a Manila slum, handing out cash to beggars from the back seat of her car, followed by a fistful of 1,000 peso (RM83) bills at a children’s hospital.

“I got in through historical extravagance, but then the political story swept me into this look at the present and the connection between wealth and power, where you can buy votes and where you can influence social media,” Lauren Greenfield, the director for the film, said in Los Angeles.

“Their rewriting of history became the narrative thread of the film. In one generation, they could redo their brand and come back.”

Among Imelda’s takes in the film on historical events include:

The Marcoses didn’t flee in 1986 amid the infamous massive street protest and accusations of corruption that drove them from power. “We were kidnapped,” she said of their five-year exile.

Likewise for the eight-year martial law her husband imposed. They were the “best Marcos years”, she said, because they gave Filipinos “sovereignty, freedom, justice and human rights”.

Even though successive governments recovered about US$4bil (RM17bil) of the family’s ill-gotten wealth, often symbolised by her 3,000 pairs of shoes left behind in the palace, she responded that “they found no skeletons but found only beautiful shoes.”