On this day that I was given a name, I’d like to post about an incredible film I’ve seen here at Sundance called Sin Nombre (which means Without Name). Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Sin Nombre stars Edgar Flores as Willy (or “El Casper” as he is known to his gang the Mara Salvatrucha). As a Mara, Willy is a wary veteran of the murder, rape, and violence that is regular to the gang. After recruiting a new member, 12-year-old “Smiley”, El Casper ends up on the wrong side of the gang’s ritualized violence and is caught lying about, among things, his girlfriend Marta Marlen. After some various atrocities, he is on the run from his gang hugging the rooftop of a train headed for the U.S. border on which he meets Sayra (Paulina Gaitan). Sayra, her father, and her uncle, are traveling from Honduras to find a better life in New Jersey. Circumstances throw the two together and soon Sayra is hopelessly attached to Willy, more or less a dead man, and is hoping to be lead safely to her destination in the hands of this devil.

Fukunaga

The film is a conversation between noir and social realism. The violence portrayed is heart-wrenching yet entirely realistic. Director Fukunaga researched the film extensively over four years, even taking three train rides, immigrant-style, across Mexico to add realism, and also to gain entitlement to a story that was neither his, nor part of his ancestry, as a half-Japanese film director. He took multiple trips to Honduras and Mexico for casting, trying to find the perfect Willy and Sayra, saying in his Focus Films blog, “The actors are the fabric of your film, they are the colors you paint with and I want them to be dope.” He interviewed gang members in prison, and after gaining their trust, was able to make contact with gang members outside the prison. The Mara Salvatrucha is a real gang that originated in Los Angeles and spread throughout Mexico and other parts of the U.S. The gang is mainly made up of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans and their violence, drug-trade, human-trafficking, and contract killing is well documented throughout history.

The title of the film, Sin Nombre, according to Fukunaga, represents the namelessness of both the illegal immigrants who make the perilous journey to the border, only to all be treated the same by border control, police, and the U.S. as well as the Mara Salvatrucha gang members, who sublimate their own hopes, aspirations, and identities to be part of the collective whole. The director shows a rigorous attention to detail in every aspect of this film, from the gorgeous landscapes stretching from Honduras through Mexico, to tight shots that capture almost more emotion than Eccles Theatre could handle. Gaining a standing ovation from the audience, and a comment from a Sundance Film Festival veteran that it was the best movie at the festival in seven years, Sin Nombre is a film you must see.

Tags: Kaye Breeman

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 3:10 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.