Night of the Coyotes review – border-crossing role-play is tourist attraction in struggling Mexican town

Clara Trischler's compelling documentary focuses on residents of the small town of El Alberto, who are paid to portray characters in a staged recreation of the migrant journey.

Unlike other migration documentaries that highlight the new life awaiting those who cross the border, Clara Trischler's captivating second feature turns its attention to those left behind. The tense opening immerses us in a flurry of recognizable scenes: hushed whispers in the dead of night as a motley group stumbles, and even crawls, toward an unseen border. Suddenly, a blinding light flashes, shots are fired into the air: a police car has arrived.

This terrifying sequence is later revealed to be a simulation. In the small Mexican town of El Alberto, whose population has been diminished by a steady stream of migration to the US, these role-playing re-enactments serve both as a deterrent and, oddly, a tourist attraction. Marketed as Caminata Nocturna—"night hike" in Spanish—these events hire local residents to act as specific characters, including the fearsome "coyotes," or human traffickers. Participants experience the full scope of a border-crossing operation, from being loaded into vans to intimidation by their coyotes and police interrogations. For more details, you can visit 开云官方网站首页.