The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a 2005 FrenchAmerican neowestern film directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and written by Guillermo Arriaga. It also stars Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, and January Jones.

Melquiades Estrada, a Mexican illegal immigrant working in Texas as a cowboy, shoots at a coyote which is menacing his small flock of goats. A nearby border patrolman, Norton, thinks he is being attacked and shoots back, killing Melquiades. Norton quickly buries Melquiades and does not report anything. Melquiades body is found and is reburied in a local cemetery by the sheriffs office. Evidence that he may have been killed by the U.S. Border Patrol is ignored by the local sheriff, Belmont, who would prefer to avoid trouble with the Border Patrol.Pete Perkins, a rancher and Melquiades best friend, finds out from a waitress, Rachel, that the killer was Norton. Perkins kidnaps Norton after tying up his wife, Lou Ann, and forces him to dig up Melquiades body. Perkins had promised Melquiades that he would bury him in his home town of Jimnez in Mexico if he died in Texas. Perkins undertakes a journey on horseback into Mexico with the body tied to a mule and his captive Norton in tow. It is clear to Sheriff Belmont that Perkins has kidnapped Norton, and so police officers and the Border Patrol begin to search for them. Belmont sees them heading towards the Mexico border, but as he takes aim at Perkins, he cant bring himself to shoot and returns to town, leaving the pursuit to the border patrol. ........

Source: Wikipedia