In the desert of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, located on the Tropic of Cancer, several families struggle against starvation. Under the scorching sun, they use homemade traps and weapons to catch birds, tortoises, and poisonous snakes to eat or sell their products to the rich drivers on Highway 57.

Like the worker who viscerally peels away a snake’s skin by the side of the road, filmmaker Eugenio Polgovsky digs deep beneath the surface of a precarious desert community to unearth a risky and fast-disappearing mode of survival. An immersive documentary that bristles with beautiful, sharp edges.