Migrants' dreams - and nightmares

 By Daniel Nelson

The Golden Dream

Image by The Golden Dream

Mexican director Quemada-Diez has said “I want to give voice to migrants – human beings who challenge a system established by impassive national and international authorities by crossing borders illegally, risking their own lives in the hope of overcoming dire poverty”. He has certainly given them a voice, and us an eye, but by the end of their harrowing adventure you wonder how often the journey is worth it.

There’s solidarity and friendship – people alongside the track throwing them food as they pass – but they also have to get through hell, prey to a variety of desperados. Saddest of all are the betrayers posing as comrades who offer them advice and help and then deliver them to ruthless criminals. It’s gut-wrenching to see how few choices they have and how the odds are stacked against them.

Quemada-Diez describes it as “a fiction based on reality, re-enacting it from a place of authenticity and integrity. We constructed the narrative and poetics of this odyssey from the testimony of hundreds of migrants and from the personal sentiments of each and every person who participated in the creative process.”

I really shouldn’t quote him, because his words read like those of an austere intellectual, theorising about migration – enough to put off most audiences. On screen, it’s an  adventure story, in which you are kept guessing about the next twist in the tale and about how the youngsters will react with each other and in response to the people and situations they encounter.

The most interesting relationship is between Juan, moody, shallow, self-confident and racist, and Chauk, a Tzotzil Indian from a different cosmology who doesn’t speak Spanish and who latches on to the others early on in their journey. (At the press preview I realised the difficulties facing foreign films when I heard a young journalist say to her friend, “There’s an Indian in the film. How did an Indian get to Guatemala? It didn’t explain that.”) Of course – small plot-spoiler coming up – they become dependent on each other, each saves the other’s life.

They are also rivals for the interest of Karen: the film opens with her cutting off her hair and taping her breasts to look more like a boy. There’s no way I will reveal how the triangle is resolved.

Do they reach and cross the US border? That would also be a plot-spoiler. But be prepared for another surprise.

Incredibly this is Quemada-Diez’s first feature. A wonderful achievement.

·         The Golden Dream is showing on 21 June as part of the East End Film Festival

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