Transformed by waves of mass-arrests without due process, communities across El Salvador are facing profound isolation and grief under the “régimen de excepción.” A story of both profound love and enigmatic absence, we follow a group of women as they await the release of their partners, the island’s boatmen, from detention.

This documentary film reveals to an international audience an urgent human rights crisis of mass incarceration without due process currently unfolding in El Salvador. In response to a wave of gang violence in March of 2022, the Salvadoran government declared a “régimen de excepción” (or “state of emergency”) that suspended several civil rights including the right to due process, the right to be informed of the reasons for arrest and the right to a defense. Originally adopted for a 30-day period, the regimen has been extended indefinitely and more than 72,000 people have been detained. Currently there is no end in sight to the regimen or its practices.

Our documentary focuses on the island of Espíritu Santo on the Salvadoran Pacific coast as an entry point to how the state of emergency in El Salvador is changing the country and impacting families. The tiny, peaceful agricultural island is an excellent case study because of its lack of any type of gang presence.