About the Film

Along the border between unstable and destitute Zimbabwe, and relatively calm and prosperous Botswana, a 300-mile, 8-foot high electric fence is being erected. Every night, Botswana’s armed soldiers try to stop border jumpers from climbing over or cutting through the fence in their desperate search for employment and food. “Border Jumpers” takes us inside the human drama behind this frontier flashpoint, profiling illegal immigrants threatened with repeated arrest and deportation, a cattle farmer who strongly supports the fence, and a journalist who reports daily on growing fears among Botswana’s citizens that their 1.7 million people could be overrun by Zimbabwe’s troubled 12 million.