DN:FILM The River and The Wall

The River and the Wall is a fascinating, multileveled film, ostensibly an eco-adventure story about five volunteer trekker friends who journey the 1,200-mile stretch of the Texas borderlands along the Rio Grande as it runs between Texas and Mexico, from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. The quartet—assembled by director and conservation filmmaker Ben Masters—is Masters, NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade (who has some lovely scenes learning to ride a donkey), ornithologist Heather Mackey, river guide Austin Alvarado, and conservationist Jay Klebergis. The five investigate and imagine the damage an actual, physical wall, as dreamed of by President Trump, would do, ruminating, watching and sharing their own stories—several of the group began their lives in the U.S. as illegal immigrants—as they travel the route on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes over two-and-a-half months. The practical and political are deftly woven in, with one after the other smack-your-head point being made: Of course a wall can’t track along the actual river, it would have to be set back dozens, hundreds of yards to accommodate the terrain; of course that would mean stranding untold acres between the wall and the river; of course the sections of wall that do exist mean that U.S. citizens are kept from the joys of the river.

The depth of the film’s intentions begin to reveal themselves as soon as the opening shots unspool: This is an absolutely breathtaking wilderness, startling not only because it’s the Texas-Mexico border (and not the Grand Canyon or Montana, which years of Hollywood have taught you to recognize this landscape as being) but also because it sinks in so quickly that this territory represents the mere 5% of the state that is public land: You think, wow, that is some irreplaceable terrain. Couple that with shot after shot of gorgeous wildlife and you buy wholesale into Masters’ concern that a physical wall would be be nasty scar on the land, and a formidable, likely fatal, impediment for the animals who traverse the area with no attention paid to national borders or political headlines.

But wait, there’s more! Because it’s Masters’ work with the personal stories that really seals the deal. Besides the adventurers—and their self-descriptions, from East Coast birder who fell hard for the wilderness to longtime illegal who so proudly wears his class ring from his U.S. state university alma mater, contain multitudes—the film introduces shadow characters as the journey nears its end and gets closer to civilization. Are they drug-runners? Are they families looking for a better life? Are lives in danger in either case? By the time the trek has ended, it’s as clear as the big Texas sky that the politicos pushing a wall are dreaming bad; that the concept is ludicrous and doomed to fail, hopefully before it’s ever built. You’re all in.

All that, plus you want to get immediately in touch with the Texas Board of Tourism and book a campsite in Big Bend National Park. And ride a donkey. But maybe you’ll learn to ride that donkey in something other than your underwear.

Playing in select theaters. Also, available on iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu