Masao Adachi and Koji Wakamatsu visited Beirut on the way back from the Cannes Film Festival in 1971. In collaboration with the Japan Red Army fighters and the PFLP, they produced the film there, involving styles ranging from manifesto, newsreel, critical reflection (of the Japanese left) to reportage (of everyday activities of the Arab guerrillas). A fusion of ‘Tactical Media’ and 'Landscape Cinema' inherited from AKA: Serial Killer (1969), the film was considered an epitome of cinematic engagement in revolutionary practice, along with the works of the Dziga Vertov Group (Jean-Luc Godard/Jean-Pierre Gorin) and Latin American directors including Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. In order to break out of the conventional distribution system, Red Bus Screening Troops were organized to travel across Japan. The English and French subtitled versions were produced so that they could be shown across the globe, including in Palestine.
