Bordertown (2007)

The celebrated Latino director Gregory Nava (American Family) helmed, scripted, and co-produced (with star Jennifer Lopez) Bordertown - a suspense thriller with an A-list Hispanic cast. Lopez portrays Lauren Adrian, an American correspondent from a Chicago newspaper, who longs to cover the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Instead, Lauren's mentor at the paper, George Morgan (Martin Sheen) reassigns her to Mexico. She is promptly shuttled off to Juarez, a troubled community on the Texas-Mexico border rattled by a series of brutal, unsolved homicides. The victims - all young women, employed in the maquilla plants that manufacture electrical components for exportation to the U.S. - are uniformly found raped and strangled to death. One of those women, Eva, manages to escape her captors (who believe her dead) and flees not to the corrupt police, but to the local newspaper. There, her life intersects with those of Lauren and Lauren's former boyfriend and lover, the reporter Alfonso Diaz (Antonio Banderas). Suddenly, Lauren foresees, in the prospect of reporting Eva's story, an assignment that could bring her closer to Iraq than she ever dreamed possible. Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Maya Zapata and Juan Diego Botto co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Running Time: 114 mins
Bordertown (2007)

A gripping story about the tragedy of the situation for women in Mexico. My wife was drawn into the story but she did understand that NAFTA has nearly zero to do with the situation for those women.

It clearly is a lack of "rule of law" and not secure Democratic institutions. If we really wanted to look at the history of Mexico then we would look at the grave and horrendous conditions that have and continue to manifest in Mexico City. I am sure similar types of abuses happened in their thousands of shanty towns also.

Just look at the buses themselves, no one is forcing those women on that bus. They are all choosing to board that bus to work. Thus there are no other alternative that is better even if just marginally.

Why pick women? I am sure that yes women may not complain as much and will accept more authoritarianism over their lives. But factories always consider hiring women since their is less alternatives for them to do. Thus this is actually providing these women a choice, no matter how unbecoming the choice is for us. Their choices for many Low Income Countries is getting married or prostitution. We should at least appreciate that now they have an opportunity that is one step above their present situation.

Pure propaganda about NAFTA but a nice story. Give that a 3.5/5