Street kid Shine (Juan Ramón López) lifts a gun and mobile phone from a drunk cartel member little knowing the trouble it will bring to his little gang of orphans.
When the two are thrown together by terrible events, Estrella uses her three wishes to try and fix things but as is the way with such magic there's a price.
CW: Casual violence including on screen child murder. Yes really.
Part Mexican drug war crime drama, part ghost story, part magical reality coming of age fairytale this is a tough watch.
It's got wobbly bits. The young cast are best in the more carefree "adventure" sections but less convincing when the going gets grim. Which is understandable as they probably had to be careful how they were exposed to the material. Some of the magical imagery is a tiny bit forced, some of it (the living graffiti) excellent.
If you're reading this far you're probably thinking it has a whiff of Guillermo Del Toro and it does but Director Issa López keeps it more rooted in grim reality than something of Del Toro's which might have amped up the fantastic as it rolled.
Cautiously recommended, 8/10. I'm glad I watched it but it does not mess about with how callous the cartel thugs are given all the protagonists are children.