Loosely based on a series of unsolved murders in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, an industrial border town near El Paso, Texas. Although estimates conflict, innumerable young women have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered since 1993.
Actress-producer Jennifer Lopez was awarded Amnesty International's "Artists for Amnesty" Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for this film for "examining the ongoing murders of hundreds of women in a Mexican border town".
One of two films made and released in 2006 which examined the so-called "Maquiladora Murders", the other film was The Virgin of Juarez (2006).
During a scene in which Jennifer Lopez's character, Adrienne Morgan, is speaking to her boss, George Morgan, played by Martin Sheen, she says: "I've been running away from who I am my whole life, because you dont want to be Mexican, not in this country." This is interesting because, she is saying these lines to Martin Sheen, Who's real name is Ramon Antonio Gerardo Estevez, and he adopted the screen name "Martin Sheen" in order to get acting jobs because of opposition he experienced trying to use his birth name given to him by his immigrant parents. One can imagine that the emotions his character displayed might have actually been real since her words were relevant to the actors real life experiences.
The movie's dedication and closing epilogue states that the film is "Dedicated to the missing and the murdered women of Juárez".