Film review
by Annetje
Border town
Border town, an American drama motion picture, featured by Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen and directed by the Oscar-nominated Gregory Sava, is inspired by true events of the numerous femicide in Ciudad Juárez. Juárez has been a killing field for young women for more than a decade. The area near the US-Mexico border is a place of nearly 400 unsolved murders and many more abductions.
The stunning Jennifer Lopez portrays the assiduous and ambitious American newspaper reporter Lauren Fredericks working for the Chicago Sentinel. As her longer term goal of becoming a foreign correspondent, she reluctantly accepts the assignment of investigating the missing young women; however, she fails to realize the extent of what she is getting herself into…
Juárez is an industrial border town which holds the site of a free-trade zone where countless women work under poor working conditions with poverty-level wages in large maquiladoras (Spanish for manufacturing plants in a free trade zone). The maquiladoras amass tremendous wealth due to laidback environmental regulations and low tariffs under the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Despite the crime wave they offer almost no protection for their workers.
When Lauren is assigned to investigate the murders, she finds Eva Jimenez (Maya Zapata), who had been brutally raped by two men, but nevertheless alludes to be the only surviving victim. Determined to catch Eva’s rapist, Lauren disguises herself as a Mexican worker to identify and trap them. The strong-minded journalist is obsessed with revealing the truth. However, towards the end of the film, subtly she shows that her motivation behind undertaking the assignment is tied in with her own struggle of a childhood trauma.
In striving to bring the story towards publicity, Lauren receives help from a former colleague, Alfonso Diaz (Antonio Banderas), who is the editor of the regional newspaper. The harsh reality of the danger surrounding the story is revealed when Alfonso becomes the victim of a drive by shooting, simultaneously, Lauren and Eva realize their lives are also at stake.
The nonchalance of the local police and other levels of authority are revealed despite the horrific nature of these crimes; they are downplayed and effectively swept under the carpet due to vested economic interests. Corruption has permitted these criminals to continue committing these acts knowing there will be no consequences. As a viewer the urge for justice to prevail is overwhelming.
This stirring and intriguing film forms a complex plot, but is insightful to the different interests of the international world, and especially when the dark site of globalization is lid. Sensationally, Sava shoots the film in a rough documentary style which instigates a jittery anxiety that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end!