Brillante Mendoza brilliantly recreates 2001 Abu Sayyaf abductions in ‘Captive’
Brillante Mendoza recreates compellingly the horrors of the 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapping in “Captive,” perhaps the most forthright movie made yet on the Muslim Mindanao problem. Freely drawing from Gracia Burnham’s 2003 book, “In the Presence of My Enemies,” which details the 377-day ordeal that the Protestant missionary and her husband Martin suffered at the hands of the Abu Sayyaf, the 2009 Cannes Film Festival best director weaves a fictional account of the infamous abduction that has, however, the tug and horror of the real thing. The result is the most realistic cinematic treatment yet of Muslim terrorism.