In a chilling portrayal of a Mexican border town, Lourdes Portillo investigates the rape and murder of over 250 young women, most of whom were factory workers, or "maquiladoras." The authorities make little effort to resolve the crimes against the women, content to imprison those who confess under duress. Portillo speaks to the relatives of the victims and to the authorities who have failed them. Rather than finding the culprits, she explores a society in which such crimes are prevalent.

"Elegiac, with low-key persistence, [director Lourdes Portillo] uncovers the outlines of what seem to be a vast conspiracy."

Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times

"...[Portillo has created] a meditative investigation...with real poetic power."

Stuart Klawans The Nation

"Señorita Extraviada is a well-crafted documentary that can be used in the classroom to discuss structural, cultural, and direct violence against women in the context of capitalism. Besides, instead of giving a portrait of women as passive victims, they manage to show them as agents of change."

Orianna Calderon Films for the Feminist Classroom

"... filmmaker Lourdes Portillo steps into this chilling murder mystery with a haunting documentary…"

Anne-Marie O'Connor Los Angeles Times

"...moving account of an outrage that has continued for nearly a decade, with no end in sight. It's more gripping than 'Law & Order' and more tragic than anything a dramatist could invent."

Joanne Weintraub Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"She (Lourdes Portillo) won a 1986 Oscar nomination for 'Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,' a film about political dissidents in Argentina, studied AIDS and Latinas in 'Vida' and explored the legacy of Tejano singer Selena in 'Corpus.' But nothing she's done has been as wrenching as 'Señorita Extraviada…'"

Edward Guthmann San Francisco Chronicle