Military training maneuvers for the exiled army

The General’s military training maneuvers for the exiled army transform roughly two hundred displaced men into a prospective fighting force—and make visible how much of that force is built from memory, recognition, and the promise of return. In the scrubland east of Los Angeles, former soldiers who have been reduced to scattered civilian jobs put on uniforms and drill together. The exercises are preparation for an invasion of their communist homeland, but they are also a performance of renewed belonging: the men are addressed once again as soldiers, and the General’s imagined army gives their exile a purpose it cannot yet guarantee.