Collisions

Synopsis

When twelve-year-old Itan, straight-A-smart, comes home from school in San Francisco, she is stunned to find their furniture up-ended, and no trace of her mother, Yoana. Child Protective Services dumps Itan and her six-year-old brother, Neto, with their estranged uncle Evencio, a big rig truck driver. Itan can’t stand him. He’s arrogant, unreliable, and possibly criminal. After a desperate search, Itan locates her mom in an immigration detention center in Arizona and convinces Evencio to take them there. They are propelled onto the road in Evencio’s truck, through the maddening labyrinth of immigration detention. Itan fights to free her mother before she is deported. But her mom keeps slipping from her grasp, as she is transferred from prison to prison. Their journey takes them through the deserts of the southern border, to sprawling truck stops, border patrol offices, and secret immigration prisons. Relations with their uncle Evencio are strained. Will the kids end up alone, or will Evencio help them reunite the family?