By Matt Brunson
Winner of two awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival (Best Director and Best Cinematography), Sin Nombre marks an impressive feature-film debut for Cary Joji Fukunaga, albeit more as a director than a writer.
Certainly, Fukunaga's screenplay is strong enough, showing how two lost souls intersect as they journey northward atop a train toward what they hope will be better lives. Casper (Edgar Flores) is a Mexican teenager who's a member of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang. More conscientious than others of his ilk, he turns his back on the gang and soon becomes their hunted prey, with (shades of The Warriors) other gang factions offering to help in his capture and execution. Meanwhile, Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) is a Honduran teen who's immigrating with her father (Gerardo Taracena) and uncle (Guillermo Villegas) as they plot to eventually cross the Mexico-U.S. border and make it up to the dad's new home in New Jersey. Circumstances lead to the two youths meeting and developing a mutually respectful relationship that, when all is said and done, complicates their respective flights from their past lives.
Read the rest of Matt's review here.
Watch the trailer here: