Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga

 

A social-political thriller in the tradition of American film noir, SIN NOMBREis Cary Joji Fukunaga’s impressive feature debut. The film is set on the Mexican border with accomplished storytelling, crisp visual style and textured performances. The fearsome gangs of today’s Mexican countryside form a gauntlet to freedom for three teenagers: Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future; Casper, a wary veteran of the gang Mara Salvatrucha; and his new recruit the 12-year-old Smiley, full of bravado and looking for status. Casper and Smiley have run afoul of the everyday violence that penetrates their world and meet Sayra on the roof of freight train bound for the States. Both a love story and a chase film, a thrill ride and a vision of apocalyptic hell, SIN NOMBRE is a portrait of hope and desperation in the midst of a nightmare that is all too real for its inhabitants.