Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of the Border

Mexican filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes's documentary attempts to put human faces on the crisis at the treacherous United States border, eschewing a conventional approach in favor of one that is far more impressionist and philosophical, touching on drug wars, corrupt lawmen, gangs, Juarez as a regional murder hub, etc., while groping towards capital-E Evil in wholesale societal dysfunction. Interviews south of the Rio Grande speak to doomed junkies, gun-fetishizing little boys, a poor family claiming to be scapegoated by police, and an intellectual who says that abuse of power is really more pertinent than narcotics, per se. On the American side, two men offer different points-of-view: one saying that illegals are exactly that and should be kept out, the other claiming that Mexican migrants are no different from desperate Appalachians who heroically trekked cross-continent in search of better lives during earlier eras. Animal lovers should beware of a sequence in which stray urban dogs are caught and killed (using lethal injection) by dispassionate city workers. Short on offering solutions, this pensive documentary about a nightmarish situation should still be considered a strong optional purchase. (C. Cassady)