Backyard
2009
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About this movie
"Sometime in 1996, a terrifying phenomenon surfaced in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. In this now-infamous city, young women are regularly murdered. Most often, no arrests are made or charges laid for the killings. This ongoing tragedy is a painful stain on Mexican history and has been the subject of numerous films, articles and books. In 2001, the Festival showcased Lourdes Portillo's Missing Young Woman, in which the filmmaker attempts to give voice to the many victims and to understand how these awful crimes take place.
Backyard, by Carlos Carrera, is a fictional account of the atrocities that continue to occur in Ciudad Juárez. We follow police officer Blanca Bravo (an astonishing performance by Ana de la Reguera), who is sent to Ciudad Juárez from Mexico City to investigate a series of murders of young women. Most of the victims are low-paid labourers who have been drawn to Ciudad Juárez by the possibility of work at American-owned factories, or maquiladoras, that sprang up on the Mexican side of the border after the NAFTA agreement went into effect. Blanca discovers an incompetent and complicit police force and an indifferent local population, embodied by entrepreneur Mickey Santos (a chilling performance by Jimmy Smits).
Presented as a fiction, Carrera's film is all the more moving given that the events he recounts are based on true stories and touch upon the various theories that have been put forward as to the cause of the murders. Hypotheses range from a serial killer, to drug cartels, to the more abstract pains of globalization, and it is easy to see how any of these factors could be at work in this Mexican town, which is a backyard to El Paso, Texas. Through his film, Carrera is able to denounce culprits who have never been brought to justice. However, the most devastating truth he illuminates is that these murders continue to happen because they have become commonplace. Today, some men kill women in Ciudad Juárez simply because they can."
Quoting Diana Sanchez on the 2009 TIFF site.
Backyard, by Carlos Carrera, is a fictional account of the atrocities that continue to occur in Ciudad Juárez. We follow police officer Blanca Bravo (an astonishing performance by Ana de la Reguera), who is sent to Ciudad Juárez from Mexico City to investigate a series of murders of young women. Most of the victims are low-paid labourers who have been drawn to Ciudad Juárez by the possibility of work at American-owned factories, or maquiladoras, that sprang up on the Mexican side of the border after the NAFTA agreement went into effect. Blanca discovers an incompetent and complicit police force and an indifferent local population, embodied by entrepreneur Mickey Santos (a chilling performance by Jimmy Smits).
Presented as a fiction, Carrera's film is all the more moving given that the events he recounts are based on true stories and touch upon the various theories that have been put forward as to the cause of the murders. Hypotheses range from a serial killer, to drug cartels, to the more abstract pains of globalization, and it is easy to see how any of these factors could be at work in this Mexican town, which is a backyard to El Paso, Texas. Through his film, Carrera is able to denounce culprits who have never been brought to justice. However, the most devastating truth he illuminates is that these murders continue to happen because they have become commonplace. Today, some men kill women in Ciudad Juárez simply because they can."
Quoting Diana Sanchez on the 2009 TIFF site.