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Synopsis:
Sin Nombre,
world-premiering at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, is an
epic dramatic thriller written and directed by Student
Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga in his feature
debut. The filmmaker's firsthand experiences with Central
American immigrants seeking the promise of the U.S. form the
basis of the Spanish-language movie.
Sin Nombre
tells the story of Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a teenager living
in Honduras, and hungering for a brighter future. A reunion
with her long-estranged father gives Sayra her only real
option - emigrating with her father and her uncle into
Mexico and then the United States, where her father now has
a new family. Meanwhile, Casper, a.k.a. Willy (Edgar
Flores), is a teenager living in Tapachula, Mexico, and
facing an uncertain future. A member of the Mara Salvatrucha
gang brotherhood, he has just brought to the Mara a new
recruit, 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), who undergoes
a rough initiation. While Smiley quickly takes to gang life,
Casper tries to protect his relationship with girlfriend
Martha Marlene (Diana Garcia), keeping their love a secret
from the Mara. But when Martha encounters Tapachula's Mara
leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), she is brutally
taken from Casper forever. Sayra and her relatives manage to
cross over into Mexico. There, they join other immigrants
waiting at the Tapachula train yards. When a States-bound
freight train arrives one night, they successfully rush to
board - riding atop it, rather than in the cars - as does
Lil' Mago, who has commandeered Casper and Smiley along to
rob immigrants. When day breaks, Lil' Mago makes his move
and Casper in turn makes a fateful decision. Casper must now
navigate the psychological gauntlet of his violent existence
and the physical one of the unforgiving Mara, but Sayra
bravely allies herself with him as the train journeys
through the Mexican countryside towards the hope of new
lives.
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