“I've always been surprised by the small number of works in the last 25 years about the US invasion of Panama, be it in literature, cinema and any other art form. It feels as though collective memory has been filed away and long forgotten.}
“This documentary, perhaps the first one made by a Panamanian, is a good opportunity to address an almost untouched collective trauma, and to analyze why so little has been said about it,” says Panamanian filmmaker Abner Benaim about his documentary Invasión.
Rather than a cold research including facts, numbers, archive footage and so-called objective information, Invasión goes for the memories of all kinds of Panamanian citizens, from the indigent residents of the El Chorrillo neighbourhood, more privileged ordinary people to famous personalities like boxer Roberto “Mano de piedra” Durán and singer Rubén Blades.
So expect a long string of brief and candid testimonies, filmed mostly in the places where the interviewees were at the time of the invasion back in 1989, which do make up a collective canvas of how folks with different viewpoints. Think of the tragedy and farce of the US operation to remove General Manuel Noriega from rule. Some people regard themselves as pro-Noriega, without acknowledging his being a dictator, as they were and are opposed to the participation and manipulation by the US in the fate of Panama — prior to the invasion.
Others were and are against Noriega's corrupt dictatorship, but also were and are against the US invasion that left some many innocent people injured and dead, a catastrophe for which no exact number of victims has been established so far (of course, there's an explanation for this, which the film exposes). Invasión is not a naive picture at all, it unveils the many layers of a complex state of things that differed from the official story. An event that many would like to forget, even if they can't and won't be able to.
So as the interviewees talk about, and also represent, the way things were when the US landed in Panama, you get to see individuals for whom deep emotions surface when the event is evoked. This is what matters most in a documentary that aims at apprehending the human factor. On the other hand, it's a bit too long for what it has to say, and even for how it says it. Ten or fifteen minutes less as well as fewer testimonies would have made a difference in its rythm and narrative progression. As it is, it sometimes stalls and becomes a bit repetitive. Other than that, Invasión is a fine piece that sheds light on an event that needs to be revised time and again.
