8.7/10 Sin Nombre is without a doubt a breakout film for up and coming director Cary Fukunaga. A truly heart wrenching movie that includes a passionate love story, unwavering loyalty, and finally the treacherous trip north to the United States that so many immigrants make today. The authenticity of the film is truly remarkable as the filming provides oddly beautiful scenes of some of the poorest parts of Central America and Mexico.
Willy, or Casper (Edgar Flores) as known by his gang, is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha, which is one of the most dangerous gangs in Mexico. The movie opens with Willy trying to bring a young boy, Smiley, into the gang and join the brotherhood. The movie holds little back as it depicts the violence and hostility of the area in great detail. After a series of events that lead to Willy being hunted by the gang, Willy is forced to run, and try to escape to the border. He finds companionship a family and young girl on a train heading north to the states, where they all hope to find refuge.
The movie’s direction is quite impressive considering this is Fukunaga’s first film. And the peace at which the film is set offers a wonderful contrast of suspense, but also it relays the length and tension involved in making the trip north. When there are brief breaks in the action the audience is flooded with the beautiful views and wonderfully colorful landscapes. The film also seems to constantly remind its viewers of the goodness in people even when they are surrounded by evil, the beauty of a country that is riddled with poverty, and finally that people who have an evil past are not necessarily evil people.
The acting is passionate and well executed, which allows the auidience to truly feel and move with the characters. The most intriguing relationship is the one between Willy and a yung Honduran girl making the trp north named Sayra. The bond that these two share throught the movie is built upon trust nd blind faith. Sayra feels a certain comfort and safety when around Willy, which is ironically the opposite of the truth, but she decides to take refuge in his company and companionship. Much of the movie the movie is centered around faith. Not necessarily a religious faith, but a faith in one’s own destiny. The movie articulates its feelings about faith beautifully pulling the audience even closer to its characters.
Sin Nombre offers its viewers an extremely truthful and eloquent look into the journey that so many Central Americans and Mexicans make. The director clearly has true understanding for what the experience is truly like, which comes from the many day she himself spent abourad the very same trains before making the film. A phenomenal film, that only leaves me excited for more in Cary Fukunaga’s next endeavor.
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