Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival

 
Sometime in 1996, a terrifying phenomenon surfaced in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. In this now infamous city, young women are regularly murdered. Most often, no
arrests are made or charges laid for the killings.
 
Backyard (El Traspatio), by Carlos Carrera, is a fictional account of the atrocities that continue to occur in Ciudad Juárez. We follow police officer Blanca Bravo Gan (an astonishing performance by Ana de la Reguera), who is sent to Ciudad Juárez from Mexico City to investigate a series of murders of young women. Most of the victims are low-paid labourers who have been drawn to Ciudad Juárez by the possibility of work at American-owned factories, or maquiladoras, that sprang up on the Mexican side of the border after the NAFTA agreement went into effect. Blanca discovers an incompetent and complicit police force and an indifferent local population, embodied by entrepreneur Mickey Santos (a chilling performance by Jimmy Smits).
 
Through his film, Carrera is able to denounce culprits who have never been brought to justice. However, the most devastating truth he illuminates is that these murders continue to happen because they have become commonplace. Today, some men kill women in Ciudad Juárez simply because they can.
 
Program Notes by Diana Sanchez