Line in the Sand

CoyoteMoon Films intends to produce a feature, "Line in the Sand," as one of its next major projects. The subject matter is timely, and the synopsis follows:

Chris Hande, a Border Patrol agent, arrives at the scene of a car crash to save a half-coyote (he later names Dog) left on the road to die. But it strikes the memory of his wife and daughter, killed by a Coyote driving van full of illegals two years before.

A couple weeks later, in a dilapidated double-wide trailer in the desert, a hollow Chris awakens in a trashed bedroom next to a framed picture of his wife and daughter. The beaded face of a Gila Monster appears at the edge of the bed. The dangerous lizard crawls toward the semi-conscious Hande. As it draws closer, Chris appears to reach for a pistol on the nightstand only to place a tin plate with an egg on it in front of his “pet” Gila Monster.

At the same time, a world away, in the jungles of Columbia, Maria Orozco and her brother Salvatore plot their escape from her husband, Juan Carlos Jacar, The Jaguar. A drug lord with political connections from South America to the U.S., Juan Carlos’ two obsessions are power and Maria, a strikingly beautiful woman with a kind of S&M hold over the Jaguar. Jacar is equally comfortable brokering a deal for a new Caribbean resort or, as we see, flaying the skin from an underling who maybe stole a drug shipment.

Back in Arizona, Chris’s only link to humanity appears to be rescuing sick and injured animals while on patrol. He shares his shoddy surroundings with Dog, who sleeps in his truck, several abandoned mustangs, a Great Horned Owl and Tripod, a three legged javelina, who is the bane of Hande's neighbor, former Viet Nam Ranger and ATF agent Jesse Stilman, who pushes Chris to stay connected to life.

Maria and Salvatore escape from Columbia, but not before Jacar turns Salvatore into a junkie. Trying to avoid Jacar’s reach, they join the river of humanity in Mexico heading for work in El Norte. Hunted by the Jaguar and his men, they arrive at La Frontera.

Hande, an expert signs tracker, locates the illegals, whose Coyote has abandoned them in the desert heat. Chris rescues the group and quickly realizes the Orozoco’s are not typical immigrants looking for work. Chris does not trust Maria, and she thinks he’s just another crazy American.

Meanwhile, Jacar traces Maria to Tucson, because on both sides of the Line his businesses thrive in a surprising criminal economy involving self-appointed American Rangers on the U.S. side and Las Zetas mercenaries and drug runners on the Mexican side. Chris does have allies, including the whole Villaverde clan, friends on the Tohono O'odham reservation. Chris even speaks their language.