Night of the Coyotes
Clara Trischler / Germany & Austria / 2024 / World Premiere / 78 min
To avoid becoming a ghost town, a Mexican village invents a role-playing game that offers tourists the chance to experience an authentic illegal migration across the US border, complete with gangsters and border police.
1,000 kilometres south of the US border is a tourist paradise. The almost depopulated Mexican village of El Aberto has crystal-clear swimming pools, zip lines and ice-cold pina coladas. It also offers an elaborate role-playing game where white tourists in sun hats and practical footwear can experience authentic illegal immigration across the US border, complete with border police, cynical human and drug smugglers, gangsters and rape. The idea is to attract tourists and prevent the village from dying out. The majority of the 500 or so inhabitants of the village have tried to make the trip across the border themselves or know someone who has, and now they are discussing how to promote the experience on TikTok. But is the role play a liberation or does it keep the village in a traumatic loop? Director Clara Trischler does not offer easy answers, but digs deep into the nuances of the many Mexican refugee stories that leave deep scars on divided families and an entire nation.