Review of BEYOND THE BORDER by Dr. Richard Pyrczak
On rare occasion, a documentary not only delivers rich and fascinating personal drama, but real educational content and purpose without preaching or propagandizing.
Más allá de la frontera (“Beyond the Border”) achieves all this and more. Beyond the Border tells the captivating story of the Ayala brothers, four men from a small town in Michoacán, Mexico who immigrate to the US. Their story is told in a simple, direct style. The film interweaves interviews with the four brothers, allowing each to tell his story and the story of his brothers in his own words and at times highly visible emotions.
After following Marcelo, the youngest of the men, to the US border and beyond, to a thoroughbred horse ranch in Kentucky, the film works through the very different experiences of Marcelo’s brothers, who have been in the US for varying lengths of time. We bear witness to the struggles of Gonzalo, the oldest of the Ayala brothers, with alcoholism; Juan Ayala’s pride at having made a good life for himself with his American wife, while lamenting that his children don’t speak Spanish and have lost an essential part of their heritage; Horacio’s nostalgia for his homeland but recognition of the necessity to continue working in the US; and Marcelo’s harrowing trip over the Mexican border and back just to visit his family at Christmas.
Beyond the Border brings alive the human side of “illegal” immigration, perhaps the most hotly debated issue on the American political scene today.
Dr. Richard Pyrczak
Instructor, Spanish and French
Moravian Academy
Bethlehem, PA
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