MANILA, Philippines — Like most people, I was at the top floor of Trinoma last Sunday, standing in line for half an hour before I could buy my tickets. It was a particularly great weekend to go to the movies, featuring the final installment of the final installment of the Harry Potter series, along with Transformers 3 (two cinemas devoted to 3D!) and this year’s remake of Temptation Island. It promised to be a titillating night at the movies; the only problem was getting good seats.

I had the opposite problem. I was lined up at the ticket counter to watch a relatively obscure little film called “Amigo”. I had no problem getting good seats; the problem was I didn’t know whether to expect any excitement or titillation.

Amigo is American filmmaker John Sayles’ take on America’s first forgotten war: the Philippine-American War. As far as I’ve read, it is one of only two films that tackle that forgotten part of American history (the other being The Real Glory in the ‘30s.)

And quite like its subject matter, it’s been all but forgotten at the box office. If not for a handful of professors, I would never have heard about it. There were maybe 40 people in the cinema, most of them my age. Maybe they were there on assignment, too.

The film is set during the latter years of the fighting in a fictional barrio called San Isidro, located somewhere in the middle of Luzon. Things get complicated when a regiment of American soldiers, led by one Lieutenant Compton, march into San Isidro and take over the town, freeing the recently-incarcerated Spanish priest Fr. Hidalgo, who acts as a self-interested interpreter for the Americans and the Filipino cabeza de barrio, Rafael Dacanay (played by Joel Torre.)

Rafael is the ‘amigo’ referred to by the title, as the story centers on his attempts to preserve his town even as he is caught in the crossfire between the Americans and the revolutionaries.

Rafael is caught between cooperating with the Americans for the town’s well-being and protecting the interests of the local Katipuneros hiding out in the nearby woods led by his brother, and of whom his son is a part. Ultimately, the movie plays out in such a way that no matter what Rafael does, he is the victim of the larger forces at play.

A scene which illustrates this, one I particularly liked, where two simultaneous events are interspersed. The first is of Lt. Compton at the town plaza reading out orders from American high command stating that revolutionary collaborators would be killed; the other is of Albay (played by the incomparable Pen Medina) at the Katipunan camp reading out Aguinaldo’s orders stating that Filipinos who refuse to collaborate would be executed.

For a war drama, Amigo didn’t pack quite as much war and excitement as its name would have ironically suggested. But what it lacked in war, it more than made up for with compelling drama and storytelling. The film focuses on the microcosm of the barrio and how its everyday life is affected by the harsh realities of war and re-colonization. The film convincingly depicts the ways in which these sides — Filipino, American, Spanish, even Chinese — attempt to read and (mis)interpret the other, and how cultural and ideological barriers disrupt dialogue and understanding.

Overall, it comes off as a credible, solid portrayal of the human condition in times of conflict. In scenes such as the massacre of the Chinese laborers and the attempted assassination of Rafael by the Katipuneros, and sub-plots such as the romance (borne out of misunderstanding and a language barrier) between a young American soldier and a young lady from the barrio, Sayles was able to paint war in all its shades of grey.

The film lasted two hours and 15 minutes, and it wasn’t exactly the kind of excitement and titillation I expected to get out of my weekend. But for what it was worth, I was treated to a dose of history which seemed more real onscreen than in the texts I was being asked to read. It became more relatable that way, and I felt that it was worth the time and money I spent on it.

Also, it’s not every day that I get to see Pen Medina and Joel Torre in such Hollywood-quality definition; that in itself was a new experience for me.