The Judas Tree

Set in a Latino neighborhood of 1958 Los Angeles The Judas Tree, part courtroom drama and part macabre romance (replete with a set of turbulent dancing corpses and Latin influenced music), tells the story of a sexy, treacherous landlady, Elena Fiero, who runs a boarding house for an unfortunate mix of the elderly and troubled. Elena who practices a self-styled religion based on Mayan ritual she calls "La Madreguera" believes that even the basest life can be transformed by the "redemption" inherent in nature. When detective Arturo Salvia is hired to investigate the disappearance of a colleague’s niece, he surreptitiously enters Elena’s "family" of strays and proceeds to fall for her. But when one the most frail of her boarders goes missing, Arturo is compelled to dig inside Elena’s "magical" garden for clues….