Loosely adapted from Jennifer Clement’s 2014 novel, it follows the lives of three girls in Guerrero whose childhoods are overshadowed by the forceful and violent presence of the local cartel. The film pivots around Ana and her friends, whose worlds are governed by those wanting to turn them into slaves or ghosts. Trained by their mothers to flee at any moment and forced into extreme measures to evade capture, these young women must learn to abandon their femininity in order to navigate their harsh surroundings.

As much a damning indictment of the hidden evils of an unjust war as it is a sensitive depiction of women living in the crossfire of gang warfare, this is an unforgettable story of friendship, family and survival uniquely told from a child’s-eye-view perspective.

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