Amigo

AMIGO, the 17th feature film from writer-director John Sayles, stars Joel Torre as Rafael Dacanay, the mayor of a rural village caught in the murderous crossfire of the Philippine-American War in 1900.

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.