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Planes, Trains and Immigrants
Sin Nombre director gambles on border crossings at box office
Edgar Flores stars in writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s epic dramatic thriller, Sin Nombre (Photo: Eniac Martinez)
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Sin Nombre, a favorite at this year’s Sundance, is a thriller that pushes the conventions of the genre. It concerns two disparate teenage lives coming together on the top of a train running through Mexico to the US border. The boy, Willy, must escape his brotherhood of brutal Mexican gangsters after he has turned against them. The girl, Sayra, seeks to escape the poverty of Honduras with her uncle and father.
Placing the action primarily atop a moving train was risky, but Sin Nombre meets the challenge. Taking Sundance’s Best Cinematography award, the film captures the majestic color and glory of the Mexican countryside. The storyline of a struggle to go North resembles the iconic border crossing film El Norte, and the characters are vivid and well-researched.
Another gamble: helming the movie with mostly unknown actors, many on film for the first time. Casting unknown talent is enjoying a vogue right now, with some of the biggest indie hits of 2008 starring unknowns and non-actors, such as the use of actual students in French stunner The Class. Sin Nombre is already being compared to Slumdog Millionaire, a movie whose star, Dev Patel, was unknown outside of BBC TV and has become an international celebrity. But don’t expect Slumdog’s feel-good conclusion from Sin Nombre. First-time feature director Cary Joji Fukunaga makes films concerned with social issues, and Sin Nombre essentially explores the struggle of youth from impoverished countries.
Fukunaga also took personal risks in the research and writing of Sin Nombre. The short film he produced as student at NYU, Victoria Para Chino, concerns Mexicans crossing the border into the US. To better understand the perilous 2,000-mile journey north through Mexico made by Central American immigrants seeking a more profitable life in the States, Fukunaga rode on top of trains in Mexico to interview immigrants and gang members.
Sin Nombre placed long-shot bets on setting, casting and subject matter, but in an industry that thrives on safe choices, the gamble paid off.
Limited opening March 20.