Tigers Are Not Afraid

In Culiacán, Mexico — deep in cartel territory — Estrella is a schoolgirl given three chalk wishes by her teacher when gunfire interrupts their class. When she comes home, her mother is gone, taken by the cartel. Alone on dangerous streets, Estrella finds her way to a small gang of orphaned boys: Shine, their sharp and protective leader, and three younger children — Morro, Tucsi, and Pop — surviving together in an abandoned building.

The gang is already in danger. Shine stole a phone from a cartel member — a phone with video evidence against El Chino, the local boss. El Chino wants it back and sends men hunting. Strange things begin following Estrella: a trail of blood that moves with a will of its own, her mother's ghost drifting just at the edge of sight, and the stuffed toy tiger belonging to Morro that seems to breathe.

As the cartel closes in, the children are picked off. Morro is killed. Each loss deepens the supernatural weight around the survivors. Estrella begins spending her wishes — each one costs something real. She uses one to escape; another to protect someone she loves. Shine, understanding what's coming, makes a final choice to give Estrella a chance to get out.

Estrella uses her last wish. The city remains what it is — the cartel still in its streets, the dead still unburied — but something has shifted. She carries the ghosts with her now, and the ghosts let her walk.