A film that's extremely topical about one young immigrant and his quest for sanctuary: Icebox

Daniel Sawka's excellent feature movie on HBO, Icebox (2018), is not only relevant but even prescient - Sawka anticipated current events in the government move to suppress immigration from Latin America with such acute insight that a photo, literally, in today's newspaper could be a still from this movie. Sawka (full disclosure: He was referred to me by my friend/his grad-school prof, and Sawka and I had a phone conversation about possible adaptation of my novel) tells the story of a 12-year-old from Honduras, Anthony Gonzalez (terrific!, and amusing that his name is Oscar), fleeing a criminal gang that has tried to entrap him (not entirely clear why they have targeted this young boy) crosses the U.S/Mexico border and is picked up by Border Patrol. The film is not so much about the living conditions and hundreds of detained youths as it's about the ridiculous so-called judicial system designed to send even these unaccompanied children back into the hell and danger from which they've fled. The hearing that Oscar finally is able to schedule is a terrific scene, in which Oscar is completely baffled and frustrated and in no way capable of stating his case for sanctuary. As in most fine films, there's no obvious villain, although there are many acts of villainy, and no saint or savior, either. All told, it's an incredibly sad film from start to finish, and one can only hope that eventually this system of detention and biased hearings will be refermed or eradicated.