“Sonora”, a 2019 movie from Mexico by Alejandro Springall

Alejandro Springall's movie "Sonora" (2019), which I watched on Netflix last night, is set in Mexico in 1931 when the United States closed its borders because of the Great Depression. The movie gradually gathers characters who are trying to get to Mexicali for one reason or another, including Lee Wong (Jason Tobin), a Mexican butcher of Chinese origin, and his wife Maria (Patricia Ortiz) and daughter Anita (Abbie del Villar Chi), who are leaving their home because of Mexican racism against the Chinese. It's a road movie, but most of it is off the road, as the characters cross the Sonoran Desert where there is no paved road to be found. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 14 August 2023)