Crossing Over is an American independent drama film about illegal immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles, and stars Harrison Ford as an immigration officer. The film deals with the border, document fraud and extortion, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter-terrorism, and the clash of cultures. Crossing Over was written and directed by Wayne Kramer, himself an immigrant from South Africa, and is a remake of his 1995 short film of the same name. Kramer produced the film alongside Frank Marshall.
After immigrant Mireya Sanchez is deported, immigration officer Max Brogan takes care of her little son and brings him to the boy’s grandparents in Mexico. Later the woman is found dead near the border. Brogan returns to the grandparents to tell them the bad news.
Taslima Jahangir, a 15-year-old girl from Bangladesh, presents a paper at school promoting that people should try to understand the 9/11 hijackers. The school principal reports this to authorities. FBI agents raid the home and ransack the girl’s room, reading her diaries and a school assignment on the ethics of suicide; they criticize her room as “too austere” and note that she has an account on an Islamic website.
The profiler says this makes her look like a would-be suicide bomber. Taslima is not charged for this, but it turns out that she stays in US illegally. She was born in Bangladesh and brought to the United States at age three. Taslima’s continued presence jeopardizes her chances and puts at risk her two younger siblings, who are US citizens because they were born in the country. Denise Frankel, the immigration defense attorney, suggests that instead of the whole family’s being deported, Taslima can leave for Bangladesh with her mother while the rest of the family stays in the U.S.
Cole Frankel, an immigration officer, gets into a car accident with Claire Shepard, an aspiring actress from Australia. Realizing that she is in the country illegally, Cole makes an arrangement with Claire whereby she will have unlimited sex with him for two months in exchange for a green card. When Cole eventually says he wants to leave his wife for Claire, she makes it clear that she holds him in contempt and is only sleeping with him for the green card.
Read the Full Production Notes
Crossing Over
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Jim Sturgess, Summer Bishil, Alice Eve, Alice Braga
Directed by: Wayne Kramer
Screenplay by: Wayne Kramer, Frank Marshall
Release Date: February 27, 2009
MPAA Rating: None.
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $3,030,259 (100.0%)
Foreign: —
Total: $3,030,259 (Worldwide)