It is these events that embody the story of a Honduran teenager who goes into everyday experiences with life in order to seek a better life. This man tries to emigrate to the United States, but he is caught up in the violence of gang life that puts him on a very dangerous course.
Spellbinding and nailbiting at the same time, "Sin Nombre’s" climax chillingly evokes the fable of the rabbit crossing the river on the crocodile’s back. Even amid such fleeting hope, its bone-deep fragility proved impossible to shake.
The actors, particularly Flores, have a documentary reality about them. Their reactions to most of their predicaments, even the ones given away too easily by the script, are real in the most human sense.
It's a drama, a romance and a thriller, but make no mistake - Sin Nombre pulls no punches in delivery a raw, powerful film that shrugs aside genre convention.
Brutal, wrenching and filled with desperation and meanness, Sin Nombre signals a major new talent in writer-director Cary Fukunaga, who never flinches while telling a story so grim and sad it moves beyond tears to numbness.
Fukunaga paints better outside the lines, working with cinematographer Adriano Goldman to offer vivid shots of the poverty and despair cutting through Latin America.
It's a tribute to the visceral impact of the staging that the film retains its grip despite becoming somewhat predictable, while thematically it's the usual cycle-of-violence hand wringing.