John Sayles’ Amigo, trailer

An American invasion of a foreign country. A battle for hearts and minds. A pacification programme to quell an insurgency. Guerrilla warfare. Firefights. Sound familiar? Well, yes and no. √úber-indie American filmmaker John Sayles winds the clock back to 1900 and the US occupation of the Philippines in his brave new film, Amigo. Sayles finds many parallels behind this little-remembered event in history and current events in Iraq and Afghanistan. As always, this most singular of directors provides a clear, lucid and dramatically compelling portrait and analysis of American colonization and the latent imperialism behind some of its wars.

Official synopsis leads us to John Sayles’ blog where you can find his behind-the-scenes journal and excellent photos like the one after the cut as his wry illustration to “Making the Movie” in the Philippines. (Thanks Jun)