Brandon is a strapping young college drop-out hired by the private border posse to chase and hunt down illegal immigrants down at the US-Mexico border. Brandon, riding a horse along the shores of Rio Grande, starts to track a group of illegals floating on a raft, a family of six. Someone shoots at him but just before he returns the fire he realizes his own Catholic priest brother Jason is also on the raft, accompanying the illegals. Or are they "illegals" really? Jason challenges Brandon speaking through a loudspeaker. And the dangerous rapids ahead are approaching fast. Brandon feels compelled to allow the family to step ashore. When he finds himself at long last face to face with the family he tracked for over a day, he realizes there is now a new and worse problem begging his immediate attention... The 18 year old Rosa is 9 months pregnant and is about to go into labor. Is his priest brother Jason the father of the child? We don't know until... When they are chased by a right-wing head-hunter gang, they take refuge in a church. In the ensuing clash, Jason sacrifices himself to save the whole group but Rosa chooses to die with him as well. Brandon is so upset, the head-hunter gang all of a sudden find themselves on the run... After the final confrontation at an abandoned tire manufacturing plant, Brandon takes Rosa's baby to the hospital. But the baby is rejected for lack of proper papers and other bureaucratic reasons. While they are discussing what to do next, the baby dies due to dehydration and for lack of medical attention. At that point Brandon goes through a transformation and swears to eliminate "all borders within." Last sequence -- Brandon is now living in Mexico, helping illegals cross the border into the USA as a non-profit service to honor the memory of his brother and Rosa. Both the local traffickers (coyotes) and the local US officials are not happy with Brandon's freelancing. Men in suits and neckties hold meetings in sleazy border restaurants with rough characters who look like they've never held any daytime jobs in their lives. Last scene -- Brandon is feeding a newborn baby in his arms with a milk bottle. A young woman is sick in bed, in the background. A knock on the door... Brandon opens it, still holding the baby. A man with the crushed face of a third-rate boxer asks: "You're Brandon or not?" Brandon keeps staring at the bulging gun on the Boxer's hip that his ill-fitting jacket cannot hide... The End ---------------------------------- |
