The film unfolds through a nonlinear narrative, weaving Ulises Sampiero, Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño, a 17-year-old leader in the Monterrey slums, with his later experiences across the border in Queens. Set in 2011, it follows a youth culture that thrums with color, style, and a rebellious rhythm. The Los Terkos, a tight-knit gang, ride the energy of a counter-culture called Kolombia, where dancing and the slowed-down beat of Cumbia rebajada become a way of life. The teens dress in bright, baggy outfits and sculpt their own eccentric hairdos, chasing moments of joy at dance parties and through bold self-expression even as danger quietly lurks nearby.
From the start, the film plunges into danger. A bold attempt to haul money from students outside a school to fund an MP3 player for Los Terkos triggers a tense confrontation with Los F, a more menacing organized group. A single stolen hand radio becomes the spark that sets off a chain reaction: later that night, a prank involving that radio draws Los F directly to Ulises and his friend Jeremy, who face an ominous warning to abandon their carefree lifestyle or risk death. The tension intensifies when Ulises witnesses a drive-by by Los F that targets members of another gang, Los Pelones. One survivor, badly wounded, spots Ulises with the radio and wrongly assumes he is a traitor, demanding his family’s safety and retreat. The threat is real enough to force a mass exodus from the slum, and Ulises’s world collapses as his mother leverages favors to smuggle him into the United States, urging him to stay away from a life that could claim his life.
Before leaving, the group passes a final gesture: Chaparra, Bianca Coral Puente Valenzuela within the gang, gives Ulises the MP3 device that had been the original focal point of their plans. The departure is dramatic and fraught with risk, and it marks the beginning of a long, arduous journey that takes Ulises far from his home and into a new country where the rules are unfamiliar and the language is a barrier.
In Queens, Ulises finds work among day laborers, but his inexperience, lack of English, and unfamiliar musical tastes create friction. A clash with roommates over music signals that adaptation will not come easily. He then takes a job cleaning the rooftop of a store owned by Mr. Loh, a Chinese shopkeeper. There, his world expands a little as his grandniece Lin, Xueming Angelina Chen, grows curious about his past and offers him a lifeline: a dictionary to help him learn English and a place to stay in a rundown shed on the roof. This fragile friendship becomes a stabilizing thread in the chaos of exile, giving Ulises a rare sense of belonging in a city that feels indifferent.
Seeking easier money, Ulises tries to perform his Kumbia on the subway and in the streets, only to be thwarted by police patrols and wary onlookers. He attends a party with Lin but leaves feeling homesick and isolated, calling home only to hear his mother’s firm warning that Los F would kill him if he returned. A late-night detour leads him back to a Latin bar where a Colombian sex worker briefly helps him, and a moment of despair follows as he intoxicates himself, even cutting his hair after inhaling paint thinner. The film does not flinch from the harsh realities of displacement, desperation, and the heat of fear that can overwhelm a young life.
A few months behind bars and surrounded by the weight of his choices, Ulises is deported back to Mexico. He returns to Monterrey to find that Los F have risen to power, dragging most of the former Los Terkos into their orbit. Amidst the funeral of a former Terko friend, Ulises reconnects with Jeremy, who has found a new path as a Christian rapper preaching in the slums. Ulises considers the idea of staying with him, but ultimately chooses to live alone on the streets once more. He dances one last time to the music from his MP3 device, a poignant farewell to a life left behind, before the final image closes in on a crowd of neighbors rushing toward the slums to shield themselves from the police, providing a last glimpse of Los F’s opportunistic escape as the neighborhood hunkers down and the city exhales.
