Tulipanes Latino Art & Film Festival

Thousands of people leave their impoverished Central American countries to get into the USA. By crossing the Northern border of Guatemala into Mexico they’re embarking on one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world.

In a small border town in the farthest South of Mexico migrants try to jump on a freight train that shall carry them to the US-border. But hardly anybody manages to make the 5,000 km trip. Already on the outset of their journey they get mugged by youth gangs and fall prey to corrupt border officials. They fall exhausted from the train or get arrested in large-scale raids by the Mexican migration police and army, who jail them for days and deport them.

Equipped only with a small digital camera the director sets off to this small border region. He accompanies the migrants in the periphery of the train stations during their grueling waiting (time) for the beast, as they refer to the train. He daily witnesses assaults by armed border units and succeeds to infiltrate the nearby deportation prison. He meets women, men and children, who recount the traumatic experiences of their odyssey. Yet there is no going back for them, despite repeated deportations. He spends days in a miserablehostel where people live, who were crippled by the train and/or cruel muggers.

This whole drama on the new Southern border of the USA is reflected in the history of the Salvadorian migrant Noé. During the shooting of several months the director happens to encounter Noé repeatedly by chance. Then comes the tragic end.

A moving – in every sense of the word – film about the end and beginning, hope and doom of the American Dream.