Being perhaps the best documentaryof 2010 to be premiered at the renowned Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), "Kano, An American and his Harem" tells the story of Victor Pearson, an American soldier who, after fighting in Vietman, settled in the Philippines, where he ended up in jail after receiving more than eighty rape accusations. But how did a war hero become a rapist in his new country? The inquisitive camera of the young director Monster Jimenez makes a case study of the curious family ecosystem that Kano - as Americans in the Philippines are called - established for that purpose. The documentary is mostly narrated by the women who lived with Kano in his huge house, a residence that for several years worked as a harem, an open secret among the villagers of a small, poor town of the Asian country. In addition, Kano himself gives his testimony from the cell where he is serving his sentence. For some of these women, the film camera is presented as a reason for catharsis and relief, but for others, the echoes of a past of sexual abuse are still a source of ambiguous reserve.