Mexico: the train to the promise land | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

Every year more than a million people from the poor nations of central American attempt to reach what some call the ?impossible dream’; the United States. From their impoverished countries the immigrants travel thousands of miles looking for a better life. It’s a journey fraught with danger. At the mercy of corrupt policemen, robbers, rapists, extortionists and extreme weather, barely two in five reach their Eldorado. On Mexico’s roads and railways, the illegal immigrants ride or walk, or try jumping onto moving freight trains, running the gauntlet of police and army checkpoints. Many are caught and repatriated; some die or are severely mutilated as they fall beneath the wheels of the very trains they hope will take them north to the USA. Our film follows these experiences and in particular the fate of two young Salvadorians, Jaime and Lupita, who are eloping to Texas. Theirs is an emotional roller coaster of hope and fear, as they face the journey’s hardships, recounted in large part through their own words. Without sensationalism, yet full of drama, a portrait of the incredible determination and courage of the illegal immigrants, as they suffer through the trials of an often turbulent route to what they hope will be a brighter future.