SOUTH WIND COME

Synopsis

ROSALINDA ALVAREZ (17) is mortified that her dad CARLOS (40s), a former high school art teacher, works as a custodian in a supermarket. The family's fallen on hard times as Carlos copes with depression. But then a godsend: Carlos's long neglected family hacienda located in the isolated desert country along the south Texas border with Mexico has an interested buyer. For almost a million dollars! Carlos must drive down and close the deal. Rosalinda accompanies him. The once elegant hacienda is currently being repaired and painted by CHEMA YEPES (18) and RUDY REYES (19), both “dreamers” living in a nearby halfway house. They're fixing it up for the secretive buyer who turns out to be VICENTE MEDRANO (30s), kingpin of the Mexican drug gang, the Zetas, a man who could provide these boys with some heavy opportunities in the drug business. Carlos and Rosalinda arrive. Though from vastly different backgrounds, there is immediate chemistry between Rosalinda and Chema. That night, Rosalinda’s startled from sleep by a GHOSTLY VOICE, calling forlornly for a lost love. Carlos assures an unnerved Rosalinda it was a dream. Next day Carlos goes off to sketch pictures at a sculpture garden on the banks of a creek he remembers from boyhood. There he meets the lovely CATA VALERIA (23) who says she lives nearby and is separated from her husband because he is held captive in a place she cannot go, a statement Carlos misinterprets to mean her husband is in prison. Curious about a black marble mausoleum on the family property, Rosalinda researches her family history and learns of a 19th century ancestor, JORGE ALVAREZ, whose young wife ministered to the villagers during a cholera epidemic. She then died of the disease. Crazy with grief, Jorge descended into madness and drove the villagers away, living his final years in isolation. That night, the ghostly voice comes to Rosalinda again. Alone, she follows the voice outside to the mausoleum, which lies on the other side of a stand of cactus and mesquites. Suddenly she's menaced by marauding javelinas. But JORGE (27) comes to the rescue! Rosalinda’s freaked but also moved by the despair of an ancestor trapped in a death of isolation and loneliness. When Carlos comes to collect her, Rosalinda is unable to convince him that the now absent Jorge is more than imagination. The next day Carlos visits the sculpture garden again where Cata Valeria reveals she is his ancestor separated from her husband, Jorge Alvarez, because he is imprisoned in death by an anger that can only be dissolved by the compassion of someone in the world of the living. Carlos enrages Medrano by withdrawing his offer to sell the hacienda, which Medrano planned to use as a meth lab. Medrano threatens to harm Rosalinda. Carlos charges Medrano’s henchman—after the struggle, the only gun in the room winds up in Chema’s hands. Chema,who had agreed to work for Medrano, turns on him, casting his fate with Rosalinda and her dad. He binds Medrano and leaves Rudy alone with the drug lord while he leads the others outside to arrange an escape. Medrano tricks Rudy into loosening his bonds, seizes the gun and kills him. He storms outside. Carlos, Rosalinda and Chema flee into the night. When Chema is wounded by a bullet from Medrano’s gun, Carlos tells Rosalinda and Chema to hide as he confronts the ruthless drug lord. Seeing how her father is willing to risk his life for her and Chema, Rosalinda realizes how much she loves him. Medrano closes in, overcomes Carlos, and prepares to kill him. Jorge appears from the darkness and intervenes to protect his descendants. Unable to kill a man who is already dead, Medrano flees and winds up falling into an abandoned aqueduct swarming with angry rattlesnakes. Cata Valeria appears and embraces Jorge for the first time since their deaths. She explains that Rosalinda’s compassion for Jorge and love for her father broke the spell that prevented their coming together in eternal love. Before their departure, Cata Valeria and Jorge request Carlos, Rosalinda and Chema to turn the family hacienda into an art colony and refuge for homeless young people.