A new Independent film called M.I.A. A Greater Evil, produced by MIAAGE Company, Ltd, is likely to reopen old wounds from the Vietnam War. Scheduled for a summer release, the supernatural thriller deals with uncomfortable truths about the Vietnam conflict, including the fate of American POWs allegedly left behind after the war ended. More than 1,600 families are still searching for information about loved ones listed as missing in action from the war.
Set on the Vietnamese-Laotian border, the film follows a group of young Americans searching for gold. Lost after an unplanned detour, they’re forced to confront uncomfortable truths about the War as they are tracked and hunted through the jungle.
Peter Alan Lloyd, the film’s British screenwriter, has written books and articles about the Vietnam War, the Secret War in Laos and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He has also travelled extensively in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia looking for clues about missing POWs and MIAs.
“I believe some men were left behind after the Vietnam War ended,” says Lloyd. “And I’ve written a modern-day film dealing with unsolved mysteries dating back to that conflict.”
Director Abishek J Bajaj also has a strong interest in the War and what it represented in the wider context of American history. “To bring an intriguing modern-day narrative into the context of that war is, creatively, very challenging,” he says.
Lloyd believes the film will lead to renewed demands for a full accounting of those men still missing from the Vietnam War. “Not one POW was ever released from Laos, other than those sent to the Hanoi Hilton and released during Operation Homecoming,” adds Lloyd. “Others simply disappeared.”
Shot entirely on location in the jungles, caves and mountains of Thailand, the film stars Sahajak Boonthanakit, an American-Thai actor who recently appeared in the Hollywood films No Escape and Gold.
M.I.A. A Greater Evil might be one of the most important films of the year, dealing with highly emotional and disturbing issues that have seemingly been swept under the rug.
