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Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Press Play with Madeleine Brand

'Tigers Are Not Afraid:' Seeing Mexico's drug wars through kids' eyes

For the last 13 years, Mexico’s drug wars have left bodies and blood running through the streets of small cities around the country.

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By Madeleine Brand • Aug 28, 2019 • 1 min read

For the last 13 years, Mexico’s drug wars have left bodies and blood running through the streets of small cities around the country. It's created ghost towns and left children orphaned.

Issa Lopez’s film “Tigers Are Not Afraid” twists that tragedy and war into a dark fairy tale. She uses traditional elements of Latin American magical realism to tell the story of a band of orphaned children who are trying to survive in a world of drug lords and human traffickers.

The film follows a young girl, Estrella, who's just experienced a shooting outside her classroom. When she comes home, her mom is missing. That forces her into a violent and surreal journey as she searches for her mom.

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Madeleine Brand

    Host, 'Press Play'

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    Sarah Sweeney

    Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

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    Michell Eloy

    Line Editor, Press Play

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    Alexandra Sif Tryggvadottir

    Associate producer

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    Issa López

    writer and director

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Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand