Smith Center for the Arts

In 2011, in the slums of Monterrey, a 17-year-old teenager named Ulises is the leader of a gang called Los Terkos. They dedicate themselves to hanging out and following the counter-culture of Kolombia: a lifestyle that consists of dancing and listening to “Cumbia rebajada” (a slowed version of Cumbia). Los Terkos members dress in bright, baggy clothes and sport homemade, eccentric hairdos. The majority of their time is spent attending dance parties and showing off their stylish colors.

The film is presented in a nonlinear narrative, jumping between Ulises’s experiences in Mexico and the United States.

A misfired prank and a drive-by shooting force Ulises and his family to flee the slum for their own safety. His mother uses some favors to smuggle Ulises into the United States illegally, demanding that he stay away from criminal activities. In Queens, Ulises makes friends and enemies, wanders the streets, dances to the Kumbia, and lives hand to mouth. Eventually, he is imprisoned and deported back to Mexico and makes his way back to his home of Monterrey. Things there have and haven’t changed; Los Terkos and the music remain, the cycle of life and death continue.

Celebrate Geneva’s Hispanic Heritage!

This film’s screening at The Smith is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts and administered locally by Finger Lakes Community Arts Grants (FLCAG) at Auburn Public Theater.