Sin nombre
Directed by:
Cary Joji FukunagaScreenplay:
Cary Joji FukunagaCinematography:
Adriano GoldmanComposer:
Marcelo ZarvosCast:
Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Memo Villegas, Gabino Rodríguez, Diana Garcia, Héctor Jiménez, Gerardo Taracena, Tenoch Huerta, Noé Hernández, Kristyan Ferrer (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Sin Nombre tells the story of Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a teenager living in Honduras, and hungering for a brighter future. A reunion with her long-estranged father gives Sayra her only real option – emigrating with her father and her uncle into Mexico and then the United States, where her father now has a new family. Meanwhile, Casper, a.k.a. Willy (Edgar Flores), is a teenager living in Tapachula, Mexico, and facing an uncertain future. A member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang brotherhood, he has just brought to the Mara a new recruit, 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), who undergoes a rough initiation. While Smiley quickly takes to gang life, Casper tries to protect his relationship with girlfriend Martha Marlene (Diana García), keeping their love a secret from the Mara. But when Martha encounters Tapachula’s Mara leader Lil’ Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), she is brutally taken from Casper forever.
Sayra and her relatives manage to cross over into Mexico. There, they join other immigrants waiting at the Tapachula train yards. When a States-bound freight train arrives one night, they successfully rush to board – riding atop it, rather than in the cars – as does Lil’ Mago, who has commandeered Casper and Smiley along to rob immigrants. When day breaks, Lil’ Mago makes his move and Casper in turn makes a fateful decision. Casper must now navigate the psychological gauntlet of his violent existence and the physical one of the unforgiving Mara, but Sayra bravely allies herself with him as the train journeys through the Mexican countryside towards the hope of new lives. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (4)
The premise of this film was utterly unattractive, I just don’t like stories about poor people from the backwoods, especially when they are in love. I ignored it at the cinema two years ago, but what finally convinced me to watch it is the interesting way Fukunaga had approached Jane Eyre. The resulting impression is just as I expected: mixed. It’s a very well made film, but its plot and the realistic portray of Mexico, gangs and Honduran refugees didn’t attract me at all.
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Clean, honest, and balanced between Gomorrah-style documentary slaughter and sensitively rendered melodrama. The word riveting doesn't come into play here, but Fukunaga's debut is still a very strong and distinctive film with a very powerful message about the state of the world.
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If “When, where and what happens to whom" weren’t so clearly pre-determined from the very start, then it wasn’t far away from giving the “western" viewer a similarly hard slap as the work of José Padilha has over the past few years, specifically for instance City of God.
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Latin America, with its exotic nature, ethnic and cultural diversity, enormous social contrasts, and complex political situation, has always fascinated me - even with all its controversial phenomena and extremes. Sin Nombre is a social drama and at the same time a crime story set in the infamous world of gangs that defy Central European notions of organized crime with their size, cruelty, and influence. The most influential gangs, such as Mara Salvatrucha or 18, have well over one hundred thousand members and control neighborhoods in several American cities. Sin Nombre can be linked with watching the excellent documentary La Vida Loca. I consider it ideal to watch both films at the same time. Director Fukunaga has the ability to capture the social reality of everyday life and the atmosphere of the outskirts of Latin American cities. The cinematography is brilliant, and the actors are cast perfectly in their roles. I have no reason to complain about anything regarding this film. Overall impression: 90%.
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