Blue Bayou

Independent filmmaker Justin Chon writes, directs, and stars in this moving drama tackling the timeliest of topics: US immigration policy and how it can destroy lives. Chon is Antonio LeBlanc, a Korean adoptee raised in Louisiana, who is married to Kathy (the excellent Alicia Vikander) and is stepdad to her seven-year-old, Jessie. When Jessie’s biological father shows up demanding access to the daughter he abandoned, an altercation leads to the revelation that Antonio was never registered as an American citizen as a child. Enter ICE—the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency—and the beginning of a nightmare for Antonio and family…

‘I've rarely seen Vikander this forceful and immediate; it's her strongest work in years. And Chon slips effortlessly into the role of a guy who's had a tough upbringing… Where “Blue Bayou” undeniably succeeds is in its portrait of the strength and the fragility of families in situations where the decks are stacked against them… There's a core of emotional honesty to this movie... It leaves you with a devastating sense of just how violent it is to tear someone away from the only family—and the only country—they've ever known.’—Justin Chang, NPR