Mezcala Island

In 1812 Mexico, Jose Santana, a twenty-six-year old fisherman, struggles to overcome earlier trauma and to save his village from a world dominated by Spanish brutality. When the Spanish threaten to destroy his village, Jose leads the villagers to an island in the middle of the largest lake in Mexico. There, they battle the Spanish on the land and on the lake, but their native canoes are no match for the great Spanish ships and they are gradually forced to stay on the island during the day and only venture out on the lake at night. In the middle of this conflict, Jose falls in love with a woman who may be a Spanish spy. Surrounded by a Spanish blockade, the villagers suffer starvation, sickness, and constant threat of attack. Eventually, Jose and the villagers must decide whether to surrender and face almost certain death or put their canoes in the water and try to escape in the middle of the night.