Time for Ilhan (2018)

(On TV, July 2021) Like many Canadians, I’ve been following Ilhan Omar’s career ever since she got elected to the US Chamber of Representatives in 2018. In an American landscape often divided between the right, far-right and moronic-right, it’s refreshing to see someone espouse values more similar to Canada than the usual American rhetoric. For a representative of a Minnesota district, she’s an incredibly visible politician for at least two reasons: First, as a transformative candidate (“The first Somali-American Muslim woman to be elected for state office in America”), she has become an obsession for the crazy-right wing. For another, she does have a history of making statements that go outside American orthodoxy and can be twisted into something enraging to, again, the crazy-right wing. (In Canada, she would be a fairly average NDP candidate.)  She’s a very interesting figure, and I welcome the thought that she’s going to remain part of the political landscape for a while — although time will tell the kind of legacy she’ll accumulate. In any case, Time for Ilhan takes us back to the 2016 campaign, in which she ran for a state district seat in Minnesota, facing long odds by going against an incumbent of 43 years. Much of filmmaker Norah Shapiro’s film is a pure campaign documentary, deep down in the trenches of local politics as she vies for the primary nomination and relies on a small campaign crew. This is not a documentary about her election to national office in 2018, but it’s a really good insight into her character. She does come across as charismatic, intelligent and empathetic — the obstacles along her way are clearly outlined, so the entire thing becomes an uplifting story of overcoming formidable odds. Some of the politics get rowdy, and even more so after her election as a crazy-right-wing smear campaign marks her as a figure of national interest. The 2016 election obviously has wider resonance considering the outcome of the presidential race, but the film ends with a kaleidoscope of non-traditional candidates running and winning elections, gradually shifting the American political landscape. Barely three years old, the documentary is already being left behind by subsequent history: Since its release, Omar has gone to national office, divorced, remarried for a third time, been the target of racist attacks by a sitting American president and said very many things (not all of them smart) that have led to right-wing outrage, while the third candidate in the 2016 democratic primary that she won later replaced her as state representative. (If you’re feeling that everything is on fast-forward: Yes.)  So do take a few minutes after Time for Ilhan to update yourself on what’s happening with her — we’ll probably get a follow-up documentary at some point.