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Sin Nombre Details

2009 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 68 members

Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's firsthand experience with Central .. Read more

Starring Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejía
Director Cary Fukunaga
Genres Drama, Thriller, World Cinema

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Sin Nombre

Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's firsthand experience with Central American immigrants, SIN NOMBRE opens to find dejected teenager Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) biding her time in Honduras while dreaming of a brighter future. Upon reuniting with the father she hasn't seen in years, Sayra seizes the opportunity to finally make her dreams a reality. Her father has a new family in the United States, and he's preparing to travel with her uncle to Mexico, where they will then cross the border to freedom. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Tapachula teen Casper (aka Casper, played by Edgar Flores), has gotten caught up with the notorious Mara Salvatrucha street gang. He's just delivered a new recruit to the Maras in the form of desperate 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), and though the youngster's initiation proves particularly rough, she adapts to gang life rather quickly. As involved as Casper is with the Mara, he does his best to keep his relationship with girlfriend Martha Marlene (Diana Garcia) a secret from the gang. Just as Martha encounters ruthless Mara leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and suffers a grim fate at the hands of the gang, Sayra and her relatives arrive at the Tapachula train yards and prepare to rush a U.S.-bound freight train with a horde of other immigrants. Rather than attempting to gain access to the cars, Sayra and the rest of the immigrants decide to ride atop the train. Little do they realise that their lives are now in danger, because Lil' Mago has recruited Casper and Smiley to rob the immigrants as they make their way to the United States. When dawn comes and Lil' Mago makes his move, Casper finally decides to stand up to the tyrannical gang leader. Now, as the train winds though the Mexican countryside, Sayra's only hope of surviving the journey and making her way to a new beginning is to align herself with Casper as he flees from the most feared gang in Tapachula.

Starring Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Diana García, Héctor Jiménez, Damayanti Quintanar, Guillermo Villegas
Director Cary Fukunaga
Studio REVOLVER ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 36 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Drama, Thriller, World Cinema
Language DVD: Spanish
Blu-ray: Spanish
Subtitles DVD: English
Blu-ray: English
Released DVD: 25 Jan 2010
Blu-ray: 01 Feb 2010
Production year: 2009
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (2) of Sin Nombre

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  • Cary Fukunaga's debut feature film tackles illegal immigration and gang culture. read more »

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    • Tom Charity, 
    • LOVEFiLM
  • Most helpful member's review of Sin Nombre

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  • 23 out of 24 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Captivating Performances & Beautiful Imagery

    An outstanding movie due to the believable performances and the incredible way in which it draws you into the world of the characters. Despite ignoring many of the political issues involved in illegal immigration and gang violence it portrays a realistic journey through the eyes of the two main protagonists, in which the audience feels a real part of. You may not leave uplifted or indeed wanting to visit Central America but you will leave with thoughts about the peoples lives and how incomparable your own problems are. Powerful Stuff that stays with you long after the closing credits!

      • RwG from Nottingham
  • Most recent members' review of Sin Nombre

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  • 8 out of 16 people found this review helpful

    * * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

    Rated - 0 stars

    why all these sub titled

      • tomtictac from Stoke-on-Trent
  • News and features

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    Sin Nombre

    Cary Fukunaga: Sin Nombre

    • Tegan Kniveton
    • 12 Aug 2009

    Writer and director Cary Fukunaga won this year’s Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director. His debut feature film Sin Nombre follows the illegal traffic of South American immigrants entering the US on the roofs of trains. LF: What made you want to tell this story? CF: I’d just made the short film Victoria para chino and whilst doing research for that I learnt about the Central American part of immigration, which is the riding of the freight trains across Mexico. It was... Read more

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Rating breakdown

68 Member ratings
  • 100
6
  • 90
14
  • 80
17
  • 70
13
  • 60
5
  • 50
3
  • 40
2
  • 30
2
  • 20
3
  • 10
3

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    • Sin Nombre - BLU-RAY Version
      Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's ...

    • Sin Nombre
      Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's ...