Plot: An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the
beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for identity leads us back
across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a
mysterious tattoo.
My Review and Thoughts:
This is a wonderful and sad documentary on the horrors of
persons trying to find a means to live and to support their family. America is
so vast and the promise of work and money to send back to their families seem
so promising and an answer to so many dreams and fixes of persons problems.
Sadly there is a growing hatred in America for border jumpers. There is a high
number of people dying seeking out that hope and dream of money in America. So
many try and so many sadly die.
This is a film by a wonderful amazing talented artist in
film, specifically in documentary making, Marc Silver. He creates an emotional
journey of so many that try and so many that fail. This showcases a mystery of
just another dead body in the desert, yet that body is so much more than just
another dead body. He is someone’s son, husband, dad, loved one. This is about
a man found dead in the Arizona desert. No identity. No name other than the
mysterious tattoos on his chest that reads Dayani Cristal. So begins the
journey to find out who this person is among countless other John Does that
have tried and failed.
I think this expresses the reality that this does not need
to happen. We fight and struggle and all we need to do is accept or come up
with a better plan at fixing this problem. Persons should not have to die in
the desert trying to seek money to help their families. We here in America take
for granted what we have. We Americas are spoiled brats. These people want to
work. We need workers for labor jobs of farming, gardening, cleaning if
Americans are too spoiled and bratty to do it, then why not let others that wish
to do it. It makes no sense to allow people who want to better themselves and
provide for their family to die in horrible means. These people give up so much
to fight for that hope. This story showcases one man's journey to fight for his
family. This showcases ones man’s journey in trying to provide for his family
and the only way he can do that is to go to America where there are Blue Caller
Jobs, Labor jobs that are willing to hire him. Jobs that need people that
are willing to work. Willing to work hard.
This is a very informative and eye opening journey of the
reality and ultimate cost of persons wanting work. This showcases the inner
reality of how so many bodies are found and sadly many will never be
identified. Their names are lost and they end up becoming just another body
over the border. I think this is an exceptionally filmed documentary that
showcases the struggle and the ultimate sacrifice. Silver directed a touching
documentary that explores the behind the scenes reality of these forgotten
people and the ones willing to treat these bodies not as just border jumpers
but as human beings and trying to find their loved ones and to give them a name
and not just another number.
It adds flashbacks to the mystery of the tattooed body.
Starring the wonderful and amazing talented actor Gael Garcia Bernal who acts
out the parts in filmed skits of drama. I have been a huge fan of Bernal most
of my life first really noticing him in the amazing tour-de-force of a film
2000's Amores Perros. He shines in everything he does and he gives a voice and
a reality to this tattooed man. You get real life interviews with family and
friends and the ultimate reality of what this tattooed man was about and why he
tried so hard to make it to America.
I think this is a must see documentary. I highly recommend
it for its personal reality through interviews with family and friends and
others that try to find a better means. You get to experience the reality of
those in Law Enforcement and Government who try to find a final resting place
for these lost souls that now are titled with just another number.
INFO