Amerasia.
Wolf-Eckart Bühler, sobre o seu filme / Wolf-Eckart Bühler on his film
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annah Arendt escribiu no seu día que o xuízo de Eichmann lle ensinou ao mundo a banalidade do mal. No que toca aos responsables da guerra de Vietnam, este termo podería inverterse: eles ensináronnos o mal da banalidade. A guerra terminou, pero nalgunhas persoas as lembranzas seguen a arder sen chama. Nadal de 1984, Bangkok (Tailandia). John Scott, veterano afroamericano da contenda, vai á procura de si mesmo e regresa ao lugar do acto. Como un delincuente, como un amante… Agardando polo seu visado para Vietnam, atópase cunha escura festa de Nadal que ten lugar nun pequeno bar situado en pleno distrito do entretemento de Bangkok. Os invitados son compatriotas: mercenarios, axentes da CIA, antigos membros das forzas armadas. Así, John Scott chega a saber da existencia de varios miles de veteranos da guerra de Vietnam que non retornaron aos EUA e agora viven en Tailandia. Quen son estes homes? Por que quedaron? Que fan nun país que debe de lembrarlles a aquel onde mataron e onde eles mesmos case resultaron mortos? Que significa para eles esta guerra, tantos anos despois? Cheo de confusión e curiosidade, John Scott búscaos. Atópaos por todas as partes: en bares e bordeis, en praias e barriadas, en arrozais e non moi lonxe de antigas bases aéreas. Máis dunha ducia de anos levan os estadounidenses a usar Tailandia non só como «centro de recreo» das súas forzas armadas destinadas en Vietnam, senón tamén como «portaavións» para bombardearen Laos, Camboxa e o país vietnamita. E el non sabía nada?
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annah Arendt once wrote that the Eichmann trial taught the world the banality of evil. For the people responsible for the war in Vietnam this term could be inverted: they have taught us the evil of banality. The war is over, but in some the memories continue to smolder. Christmas 1984, Bangkok, Thailand. John Scott, an African American Vietnam war vet, is searching for himself and returns to the scene of the act. Like a criminal, like a lover… Waiting for his visa for Vietnam, he encounters an obscure Christmas party in a small bar in the middle of Bangkok’s entertainment district. The guests are compatriots: mercenaries, CIA agents, former GIs. John Scott learns of the existence of several thousand Vietnam War vets who never returned to the US and are now living in Thailand. Who are these men? Why have they remained? What are they doing in a country that must remind them of the one where they had killed and almost were killed themselves? What does this war mean to them, so many years later? Confused and curious, John Scott searches for them. He finds them everywhere: in bars and brothels, at beaches and in slums, on the paddy fields and not far from former air bases. For over a dozen years, the Americans have not only used Thailand as a “recreation center” for their GIs in Vietnam, but also as an “aircraft carrier” for the bombarding of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. And he didn‘t know anything about that? Samai, whom he had thought was Thai, is the daughter of an American soldier she has never met. Thousands of so-called “Amerasians” exist
