Blue Bayou

Year: 2021

Actors: Alicia Vikander, Emory Cohen, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Elizabeth Kaluev

Duration: 117 min

Antonio LeBlanc is an adopted Korean American and tattoo artist living outside New Orleans with his pregnant wife Kathy, a rehabilitation nurse, and her biological daughter Jessie. Due to his criminal record, he is unable to find additional employment to support his family, though Kathy offers to restart working to help make ends meet. After being physically harassed by NOPD officers Ace and Denny, the former being Jessie's absent biological father, Antonio is violently arrested. He is placed into ICE custody and faces deportation when it is revealed that his adoptive parents never naturalized him pursuant to Child Citizenship Act of 2000. Antonio and Kathy seek to appeal his deportation with the help of immigration lawyer Barry Boucher, who requests a $5,000 retainer. Barry warns, however, that if his appeal fails, he can never return to America again. Antonio strikes up a friendship with Parker, a Vietnamese refugee with terminal cancer who came to America with her father when she was a child, and whose mother had died during the journey. After receiving a tattoo of "Fleur-de-lis" (a water Lily which references freedom - however never forget your roots as water lilies have roots but most people don't know this) from Antonio, she invites his family to a communal cookout at her home. Still unable to afford Barry's services, Antonio and his friends resort to stealing motorcycles and selling them, with Antonio nearly getting caught. Antonio pays Barry, claiming that the money was an advance from work, which Kathy finds suspicious. Barry tells Antonio that due to his criminal record and a lack of factors that would make his appeal favorable, his best chance is to seek support from his adoptive mother, who is still alive - something Antonio had hid from Kathy. Deeply hurt over this lack of disclosure and even more devastated by his refusal to contact his adoptive mother (due to her refusal to defend themselves against his physically-abusive adoptive father), she leaves with Jessie and moves in with her mother. Having begun to lose hope, Antonio severs his friendship with Parker. Eventually, Antonio chooses to see his now-widowed mother, who appears apathetic and unwilling to appear for his trial. Antonio is fired by his boss at the tattoo parlor due to unpaid debts. He makes amends with Parker, whose cancer has gotten worse. When she falls unconscious, he takes her to the hospital. Kathy gives birth to her and Antonio's daughter, and they reunite. On the day of Antonio's hearing, Kathy, Jessie, Antonio's friends, Ace, and Antonio's mother, arrive to offer support. Antonio, unbeknownst to them, is abducted by Denny and his friends, who viciously assault him and leave him for dead. Knowing that he's guaranteed to be deported, Antonio attempts to commit suicide by drowning but cannot bring himself to do it. Denny brags to Ace about assaulting Antonio and making him miss his hearing, and Ace, disgusted, arrests him. After saying his final goodbyes to his friends, Antonio is escorted by ICE to the airport for deportation to South Korea. Intending to go with him, Kathy and Jessie manage to locate him at the airport. Ace also arrives, wanting to say his farewells to Jessie, his daughter, before she leaves. Not wanting to displace his own family and not knowing where he'll be sent, Antonio tells them to stay in America. Unable to let go of an inconsolable Jessie, Antonio is forcibly separated from her as she cries out for him. Real-life cases of other not naturalized adopted persons who are either facing deportation or have been deported are shown, along with the estimates by the "Adoptee Rights Campaign of International Adoptees" who face similar circumstances.

Genre: Action   Drama