When U.S. troops garrison his village, Rafael comes under pressure from the blood-and-guts Colonel Hardacre (Chris Cooper) to collaborate with the U.S. soldiers in their hunt for the Filipino guerillas that occupy the surrounding jungle. But the situation is complex, as Rafaelʼs brother Simón (Ronnie Lazaro) is the head of the local guerillas, and considers any concessions to the Americans to be traitorous.
A devious Spanish friar (Yul Vázquez) is charged with translating, but thwarts communication with his spiteful intrigues. A sympathetic American lieutenant (Garret Dillahunt) begins to learn that “hearts and minds” cannot be won at gunpoint. And all the while, Rafael is forced to make the near-impossible, potentially deadly decisions faced by civilians in an occupied country. Friendship and betrayal, romance and heartbreaking violence, AMIGO is a page torn from the forgotten history of U.S. imperialism and a mirror of todayʼs unresolvable conflicts. (courtesy Variance Films)
A special Filipino Community screening, co-presented by the Philippine Study Group of MN (psgm.org), will take place Sat, Sep 17 at 4:00pm. Tickets are $6. A panel discussion to follow the screening will include Addi Batica (activist expert on Philippine history), Raul Debuque (member of negotiation panel for corrective plaque action in Capitol Building), Marlina Gonzales (multimedia arts curator and consultant), Marina Feleo Gonzalez (playwright and screen writer who wrote the acclaimed Minsa’y Isang Gamu-gamo, aka Once A Moth), and Kyle Ward (author of In the Shadow of Glory: The Story of the Thirteenth Minnesota in the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American War).