Operation Just Cause (film)

Operation Just Cause
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLuis Franco Brantley
Luis Pacheco
Produced byJanet Alvarez Gonzalez
Jacobo Silvera
StarringArian Abadi
Production
companies
Jaguar Films
Planet Films
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • 31 October 2019 (2019-10-31)
CountryPanama
LanguageSpanish
Budget$900,000-$1.5 million

Operation Just Cause (Spanish: Operación Causa Justa) is a 2019 Panamanian action war historical drama film directed by Luis Franco Brantley and Luis Pacheco,[1] and produced by executive producers Janet Alvarez Gonzalez and Jacobo Silvera. It was selected as the Panamanian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[2][3]

Plot

In El Chorrillo, a military officer, a fisherman, an American businessman, a prostitute and a young man trying to keep his friends from joining the fighting live through the United States invasion of Panama.[4]

Cast

  • Arian Abadi as Calixto
  • Anthony Anel as Ismael
  • Patricia de Leon as Carmina
  • Aaron Zebede as Mayor Robledo
  • Janet Alvarez Gonzalez as Colonel Alvarez
  • Joavany Alvarez as Lieutenant Colonel Silvera Southcom

Production

The budget was variously reported as totaling $900,000,[5] or initially costing $680,000 before being raised to about $1,500,000 by the end of the production due to the scale of the film.[6] The film was a Panamanian production made with Colombian support, with co-director Luis Pacheco describing the movie as aiming to "keep this history alive so that it is not forgotten. (The invasion) is not something that should be set aside. There are still a number of pending issues to be resolved, especially for the victims and their families", as well as to "tell the Panamanian version of events, a version told to us by those who were there, not the version from the outside." Pachecho also stated that 15 years before the film, Panamanians did not want to grant interviews regarding the invasion, but more recently had finally become interested in discussing the event.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Panamá presenta su primer drama sobre la invasión estadounidense de 1989". Agence France-Presse (in Spanish). 29 October 2019. Retrieved 20 January 2026 – via La Prensa.
  2. ^ "Oscars: 'Operación Causa Justa' representará a Panamá en los Premios Óscar 2021". Crítica Panamá. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Oscars 2021: Panama Selects Just Cause". Cinema Tropical. 21 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Operación Causa Justa". Caribbean Cinemas. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  5. ^ Lorenzo, Alexis (26 April 2019). "Su filme costará $900 mil dólares". Critica. p. 23 – via PageReader.
  6. ^ Zorrilla C., Lissette (30 October 2019). "'Operación Causa Justa' recuerda los hechos del 20 de diciembre de 1989". Panamá América (in Spanish). Retrieved 21 January 2026.