Sin Nombre

Newcomer writer-director Cary Jôji Fukunaga's Sin Nombre tackles the issue of illegal immigration in a roundabout fashion as it interweaves two narrative strands. The first follows Willy (Edgar Flores), a member of the powerful Mara Salvatrucha gang in southern Mexico. Willy is busy bringing young Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer) into the gang in a brutal initiation rite, while also secretly dating a girl from another neighborhood. When gang leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejia) discovers Willy's hidden romantic interest, Mago kills her. Meanwhile, Honduran teen Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) is fleeing north, trying to make her way through Guatemala and Mexico to the U.S. The two stories come together when Mago, Willy, and Smiley are robbing the train carrying Sayra, and Mago assaults Sayra, spurring Willy to take a machete to Mago, after which he becomes a target of Mago's “brothers.” One can easily imagine this scenario being slicked up into mainstream entertainment, but Fukunaga instead opts for grit and a sense of somber authenticity. True, Sin Nombre goes for the heartstrings with the ensuing Willy/Sayra romance that hearkens back to Romeo and Juliet (though West Side Story might be a better comparison). But the gang material—revolving around brutal beatings, casual violence, and an obsessive lust for revenge—is wrenchingly real. Sin Nombre may be about desperate people making their way across the border into the U.S., but the film takes an entirely unconventional route to get there. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by writer/director Cary Fukunaga and producer Amy Kaufman, 10 minutes of deleted scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a powerful film.] (F. Swietek)