Operation Just Cause (Operación Causa Justa)

Concept poster for the film "Operation Just Cause" by Luis Pacheco and Luis Franco.

This film revisits one of the most painful nights in Panama’s modern history. On 20 December 1989, as Christmas approached, 26,000 American soldiers entered the country, turning anticipation into uncertainty and placing ordinary people at the centre of a conflict they did not choose.

Inspired by real events and shaped through a fictional narrative, the film follows several lives caught in the first hours of the invasion: a patriotic lieutenant disillusioned by his superiors, a young man trying to keep his friends from joining the fight, a fisherman determined to bury his compadre, a woman trapped by the weight of her past, and an American businessman imprisoned for opposing the Noriega dictatorship.

Through these intertwined stories, Operation Just Cause looks beyond the military operation itself to reveal its human cost, presenting the invasion from the perspective of the Panamanians who lived it.

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Poster design: Luis Muñoz
Concept: Luis Muñoz