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Crossing Over (18)

  • Consumer Advice: Contains very strong language, strong violence and nudity
  • Run time: 1 hour 53 mins
  • Genre: Thriller / Drama
  • Release date: 31st July 2009

Plot Synopsis

The US offers hope—but that often comes at a price. Many can earn citizenship legally through a lengthy bureaucratic process, but others find themselves out of luck in a country where virtually anything can be bought. Sex, violence and betrayal become their currency. Some wait in line for permission to enter the U.S. while others take matters into their own hands.

Working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles, Max Brogan (Harrison Ford) is an agent sworn to protect our nation’s immigration laws. He deals with the thousands that try to cross over into the US in search of a better life. Through the lives of Brogan; Brogan’s ICE partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis); Denise Frankel (Ashley Judd), an immigration defense attorney; and her husband applications adjudicator Cole Frankel (Ray Liotta) we see the impact of immigration goes beyond the job and defines their lives.

Their lives intersect by necessity, accident or fate with Mexican factory worker Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga); Hamid Baraheri’s sister Zahra (Melody Khazae); young Bangladeshi Taslima Jahangir (Summer Bishil); British musician Gavin Kossef (Jim Sturgess); Australian actress Claire Shepard (Alice Eve); and Korean teen Yong Kim (Justin Chon).

Each has a different struggle: a single mother deported without her child; a high school girl whose provocative essay draws FBI attention; an actress who willingly prostitutes herself to earn her green card; a struggling musician trying to build a career while working his day job; and finally, a Korean teenager caught between two worlds.

Brogan’s struggle is the struggle our country is facing today. His sense of duty and compassion mirror the current immigration challenges the US faces. Ultimately, in CROSSING OVER we learn that the only thing greater than what divides us are the dreams we share.