30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Italian premiere

In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, red poppies support a fragile local economy, including children’s education, home building, and a guaranteed meal on the table. Campesinos, mostly indigenous farmers, sell opium paste, but with the spread of fentanyl (a powerful synthetic opioid), prices plummet. Many campesinos are forced to migrate to work as exploited labourers or join organised crime, while others struggle to survive by harvesting corn. La raya explores these farmers’ dependence on a volatile black market, which makes their and their families’ futures uncertain, gradually leading to poverty and violence. This shifts the focus away from the devastation caused by fentanyl overdoses and into global drug policies and their implications.

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  Andalusia K. Soloff

  A freelance journalist based in Mexico City, she contributes to AJ+, VICE News and TeleSUR and has been a guest on the BBC, Huffington Post, and Al Jazeera. Her reporting focuses on human rights violations, indigenous land struggles, and gender-based violence. She is the founder of Frontline Freelance México, which defends journalists' rights and press freedom. She directed Al Jazeera's Emmy-nominated documentary A Sense of Community: Itzapalapa (2022).