A FILM REVIEW
SIN NOMBRE
by Malik Isasis




Sin Nombre opens on a surreal mural of densely packed trees with marigold-yellow and orange leaves. It looks real, but it is only an illusion. The mural is a wall in the bedroom of Casper (Edgar Flores), the story’s emotionally conflicted protagonist. He sits on the edge of the bed staring at the mural as if wanting to be in that place. From the moment we see Casper, he is already questioning his devotion to the violently perverse gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). He is at a crossroad even before we hear him speak a word.

Is it the violence? The intimate knowledge of knowing that death will find him very early, or is it love? It is all three, but it is love that is the driving force behind his choices to neglect his duties of scouting and reporting back to the leader, Lil’ Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), whose face is a MS-13 mural. His entire face is covered with an M and S. And yes, it is menacing.

American director and writer Cary Joji Fukunaga’s film Sin Nombre captures the unadulterated misery, violence and desperation in squalid barrios and shanty towns that force people to live as outlaws to eek out an existence—whether it is to join a gang or hop a train to the United States border. Poverty has a way of stripping people of dignity. It has a way of breaking down the family unit, making them susceptible to domestic violence, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, viral infections, and a whole gambit of social ills that rob global societies of its productive, and healthy adults. It is in this environment that the Mara Salvatrucha gang and other gangs, thrive. Picking off fatherless boys and girls, and consuming them. The Mara Salvatrucha gang is an American import, which begun in Los Angeles and spread throughout Latin America as members were deported. With 50,000 members, their reach is as long as the mob, which is methodically illustrated in the film.

Casper never seems present, he always appear to be somewhere in his head. He is likable enough despite the bloody initiation of his 12-year-old friend Smiley into the gang, and later helping Smiley with a pipe gun, blow a rival’s head off.

The film leaves Mexico and travels just across the river to Honduras where we find the doe-eyed Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), who’d been abandoned by her father as a child as he left her mother for the United States. After being deported from New Jersey, he is back and promises to take her and his brother back to the United States. Her quiet eyes smother the pain of abandonment, but she swallows her pride and accepts her father’s gesture to return with him back to New Jersey.

After crossing the river in an inflated tube, Sayra, her uncle and father find themselves in a train yard that looks more like a refugee camp with hundreds of people from across Central America, await the next train heading north. It is here that the destiny of Casper and Sayra to meet are put into motion. The hundreds of refugees in the train yard are prey for the Mara Salvatrucha, and as the people from across Central America and Mexico cross the country atop the train they are greeted in some towns by kids throwing apples and oranges to them, and in other towns, rocks at them. They elude the Mexican authorities and tolerate inclement weather.

Sin Nombre was executive produced by Mexican actors Diego Luna, and Gael García Bernal of Y Tu Mamma Tambien, who also a couple years ago produced the wonderful Drama/Mex, are proving that they have an eye for storytelling.

Sin Nombre is a love story, a tragic one that leaves you feeling like you’ve walked off a cliff. One might need some pharmaceuticals and a hug to help with the emotional recovery. It is one of the best movies of this young year.

GRADE: A+