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Total Film: The Modern Guide to The Movies

Reviews

Honduran teens encounter trouble trying to cross the border in to the States

Jul 28th 2009 By Neil Smith

A Honduran teen hooks up with a Mexican gangbanger en (illicit) route to the US in an evocative road movie that doubles as a Romeo-and- Juliet-style love story.

For Western audiences, it’s the insights into the violent rituals of the real-life Mara Salvatrucha gang that give Sin Nombre – Spanish for “nameless” – its hot pulse.

The depiction of a vicious underclass asserting its identity through guns, crime and scary tattoos invites comparisons with City Of God.

Yet it’s the scenes of immigrants heading north atop moving trains which resonate the most – a testament to Adriano Goldman’s brilliant, expansive cinematography.