A stranger (Luis Chávez) crosses a river trying to make it into the US from Mexico, but almost drowns doing so, and he's really saved in the nick of time by border agent Angel (Roberto Urbina), who then drops him off at the outpost he runs together with agents Hitch (McCaul Lombardi) and Cruz (Julieth Restrepo). Unfortunately, Hitch and Cruz accidently shoot the stranger dead in a kind of kneejerk reaction. As Angel wants to help out his colleagues, he orders the body to be secretly buried in the desert - after all, the stranger's undocumented, and nobody even knows he has been taken in apart from them three. So it really doesn't sound like the wrong thing to do while they're at it. When Angel returns home to his wife Hanbnah (Kendal Rae), he finds a man in their home, Ignacio (Manuel Uriza), who might just be the father he has never known. He's addled in his brain, sure, but quite some evidence suggests he's still his dad - something Angel has difficulties to accept, also because he's still angry at his dad for abandoning them back when. Another problem is, Ignacio is an illegal immigrant. So soon enough, Angel has two Internal Affairs officers (Chris Mulkey, Julio Cesar Cedillo) on his tail, and Hitch and Cruz suspect it's because of the strangers they have buried. Weirdly enough, Angel saves the stranger in the river again, and freaks his colleagues out by bringing him in again. When they check the grave n the desert, it's empty, too, but since half his had has been blown off, there was no chance for him to survive his death - thing is, when they return to the outpost, his cell is empty as well. Tensions mount and soon prove too much for Hitch, who hangs himself. And still, that's not nearly the end of it yet ...

A pretty clever crime thriller that might not score too high on the spectacle core, and definitely to the film's advantage as the relative lack of action allows the film focus on its well fleshed out, relatable if fallible characters, something only augmented by the film's paranormal underpinnings and even political commentary, as border control here becomes a very personal issue. And that the film's also solidly directed and the small ensemble cast is giving it their all of course also helps making this just a really cool and quite thoughtful movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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