Amerasia. Wolf-Eckart Bühler

Amerasia.

Wolf-Eckart Bühler, sobre o seu filme / Wolf-Eckart Bühler on his film

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?

H H 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

Samai, que John coidaba que era tailandesa, é filla dun soldado estadounidense que ela non chegou a coñecer. En Tailandia existen miles dos chamados «amerasiáticos», cóntalle a moza en ton acusador. Cada vez máis amargada e introvertida, guíao por un mundo que sen dúbida non coñecería sen ela. Canto máis vai aprendendo sobre si mesma, máis vai comprendendo el tamén. Entón John Scott decide dar volta; tentará atoparse a si mesmo no seu país. Os protagonistas do filme, o actor estadounidense John Anderson (figura principal de Ashes and Embers de Haile Gerima) e a tailandesa Gillian Tuyudee, interprétanse a si mesmos: John Anderson serviu dous anos como soldado en Vietnam, en 1969 e 1970, e Gillian T. Hornett é filla dun membro das forzas armadas estadounidenses. Todas as demais persoas que aparecen no filme son o que son de verdade: propietarios de bares e xornalistas, agricultores e badanas, bailarinas e traballadoras do sexo, boxeadores tailandeses e mercenarios… Cada un deles, e cada un ao seu xeito, vítima dunha guerra á que deben a súa existencia; enigmáticas testemuñas clandestinas dun pasado que se encontra aquí e alí, indesexado e reprimido; estranxeiros e carentes de fogar nun país que poida que lles dese abeiro ou un lugar onde vivir, pero nunca un fogar de verdade. A guerra de Vietnam deixou moitas vítimas e algunhas teñen que seguir vivindo co que experimentaron… O solitario deambular de John Scott por Bangkok e Tailandia, os seus encontros e debates constitúen un excurso sobre a culpa, a impotencia e a represión. E talvez sobre a esperanza. in Thailand, she tells him accusingly. Increasingly more bitter and introverted, Samai guides him through a world he surely wouldn’t have known without her. The more she starts to learn about herself, the more he begins to understand as well. John Scott decides to turn back. He will try finding himself at home. The film’s protagonists, American actor John Anderson (main actor in Haile Gerima’s Ashes and Embers) and Thai Gillian Tuyudee Hornett, play themselves: John Anderson served as a soldier in Vietnam for two years, in 1969 and 1970, and Gillian T. Hornett is the child of a GI. All the other people in the film are what they really are: bar owners and journalists, farmers and slackers, dancers and sex workers, Thai boxers and mercenaries… Every one of them and each in their own way a victim of the war they owe their existence to; clandestine uncanny witnesses of a past that is here and there unwanted and suppressed; foreign and homeless in a country that may have given them shelter or a place to live, but never a real home. The Vietnam War has left many victims behind and some of these have to continue living with what they experienced… John Scott’s lonely wanderings through Bangkok and Thailand, his encounters and discussions are an excursus on guilt, powerlessness and suppression. And maybe on hope.

AMERASIA

97′ / 1985 / ALEMAÑA OCCIDENTAL Sala 1 venres Thursday ás 20:30 h Dirixido, escrito e producido por Wolf Eckart Bühler Fotografía: Bernd Fiedler Montaxe: Thomas Balkenhol Música: Terry Allen Con: John Anderson, Gillian Tuyudee Hornett, Terry Allen, Surachai Chantimatorn, Alan Dawson, Paijong Laisakul