Via Netflix streaming I watched the 2009 film Sin Nombre (Without Name) tonight. It’s a U.S.-Mexican production filmed in Spanish. (The version I saw had English subtitles.) The movie won the dramatic directing award for Cary Joji Fukunaga and a cinematography award at the Sundance Film Festival last year.
A remarkable and well done film that portrays a part of the immigration story from the other end. Sayra, her father and uncle are attempting to migrate to the U.S. from Honduras to join the father’s new family in New Jersey. Willy, aka El Casper, is a violent gang member in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. His loyalties are divided between the gang and his girlfriend, however, so that neither trusts him. This leads to trouble which ultimately puts him on the same train northward through Mexico as Sayra.
The acting is excellent throughout, the pace brisk but never hectic, the violence appropriate to the circumstances.
I gave this five out of five on Netflix. I thought it was that good.
According to background I read about this movie, many of the extras portraying immigrants in the movie were in fact immigrants. As director Fukunaga reportedly said, he didn’t have to tell them what to do.
Great movie but very sad.
Oh yes, very sad.