Jim reviews film "SIN NOMBRE" -- ‘Without A Name’ has much to be Remembered = ( = 4 of 5 stars)

“SIN NOMBRE” — ‘Without A Name’ has much to be Remembered =
Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

(Based on an advance preview:) Director Cary Fukunaga, a 31-year-old American NYU Film School student, considers this his ‘Thesis’ work towards a degree. It’s already won awards at Sundance in the 2009 U.S. Dramatic competition for Directing and Excellence in Cinematography. Rather than being about the direct question of illegal immigration from Central America into the U.S., it’s more about the JOURNEY of Hondurans (including a woman, Sayra, played by PAULINA GAYTAN) and their difficulties getting thru Mexico to the U.S. It also focuses on help given by a teenaged male gang member (played by EDGAR M. FLORES, who’d never acted before) while he tries to escape his ex-gang-members who are chasing him. In gritty detail, it tells the harrowing problems encountered by the eager illegals and the violence-fueled gangs that work to enlist young new recruits to their pointless & wasteful non-causes. The subtitled-from-Spanish film effectively makes you CARE about the participants, and it’s a fascinating excursion.