Transpecos

This impressive debut from director Greg Kwedar is a taut and atmospheric thriller about the drug trade set amid the American-Mexican borderlands

Film Review by Michael Jaconelli | 21 Mar 2017
Film title: Transpecos
Director: Greg Kwedar
Starring: Johnny Simmons, Gabriel Luna, Clifton Collins Jr.
Release date: 24 Feb
Certificate: 15

The film begins at a remote border checkpoint in the Chihuahuan desert. We watch as the three agents posted kill time between the infrequent passing of cars across the border by swapping stories and flipping cones. But when a car pulls up and what seems like a routine check leads to a killing and the discovery of a shipment of cocaine in the trunk, events quickly spiral out of control as moral boundaries become blurred by the desire for self-preservation.

Largely a three-hander between its leads, the film benefits from distinctive performances from each actor and the starkly beautiful images conjured up from the surrounding desert by cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron.

Arriving at a pertinent time, Transpecos smartly focuses in on the moral conflict at the heart of America’s war on drugs without exploiting it for sensationalist effect.


Transpecos screened at Glasgow Film Festival and was released by StudioCanal 24 Feb

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