Movie Review: Sin Nombre -A Tale of Two Worlds
By Rossan Chen
Staff Writer
Sin Nombre begins as two separate stories told in alternating sequence, so that we get the sense that the fate of these characters is somehow intertwined like in Amores Perros. (Incidentally, Gael García Bernal is an executive producer of Sin Nombre.)
The first story takes place in the rough streets of Chiapas, Mexico. A street soldier named Casper recruits a young kid to his gang despite the impotent protests of his elderly grandmother. Casper introduces Smiley to the world of gang signs, homemade guns and the taste of his first kill. Yet Casper is secretly in love with a woman apart from the world of the gang. He tries to protect her by lying about his gang life, but this ultimately forces him to choose between loyalty and love.
The second story chronicles the journey of a man, his brother, and his teenage daughter whom the man left behind as a child on his first border crossing. They travel on foot from Honduras through Guatemala, where they reach the Mexican border and await a freight train heading north. The father tells his daughter, Sayra, to take a look at all the people loitering around the train yard. Only half of them will make it, he remarks. When the train finally arrives, everyone climbs atop and braves whipping branches, hunger, and the unforgiving elements.
The twin stories come together during a sudden thunderstorm. Casper, Smiley and the gang leader are out to rob the migrants of the little money they carry in order to feed the gang’s coffers. They jump on the train and immediately execute coordinated attacks on the unsuspecting and vulnerable migrants. Trouble brews, however, when Sayra and her family are held at gun point, and long held loyalties are suddenly shattered.
In the aftermath, an unlikely bond forms between Casper and Sayra. She finds more confidence in the young man who just saved her than the man who left her behind a decade ago. Sayra tells Casper with a laugh that she once visited a psychic who told her she would make it to the United States – not by train, but by the hands of the devil. Only the audience knows how much truth may lie in those words.
Sin Nombre illustrates the harrowing journey migrants make through Central America, across Mexico, and finally to the border crossing. The migrants encounter kindness from strangers as well as increasing danger along the way. There is the constant threat of border patrol, Mexican animosity for traveling through their country, and opportunists ranging from corrupt police officers to bandits. Sayra’s father has made the journey before and understands the danger in the crossing.
The unsuccessful ones will be caught and deported if they’re lucky, or they’ll die along the way if they’re not. Whatever your opinions are on illegal immigrants in the United States, this movie will make you appreciate the struggle these people endured for the opportunity of a better life. The film is an homage to the real life struggles of migrants told through the eyes of Sayra and Casper. These stories are fiction, and yet they’re real and they’re happening south of the border today.
The film also depicts one slice of the life migrants face if they remained in their home country. Casper is someone who has given his life over to the gang world. It’s clear his heart isn’t in it, but in Mexico we see that there aren’t many opportunities for young men to thrive. Casper has a chosen a path of remaining in his home country, and this path he felt has wasted his life. Now at large for his act of betrayal, the only way he can redeem his life before his former gang catches up to him is to help Sayra reach the American border. It is a really compelling view of the contrast of choices migrants face when deciding to remain in their countries where few opportunities exist or to risk it all on a journey to the border. We see the results play out with devastating consequences for both.
Sin Nombre is the debut feature film by writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga. He won the dramatic Directing Award and Excellence in Cinematography Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Sin Nombre is now playing at the Embarcadero Center Cinema.