SIN NOMBRE (Without Name) (2009) B++

Foreign, Spanish, subtitles

This painful but excellent movie is about Hispanic people attempting to get into the USA. (To be honest, if I was a poor boy in a third world country . . . and only a couple of hundred miles from the United States . . . I would spend all my energies trying to get across the border). The film was difficult to watch because of scenes of brutality and privation.

Unfortunately, the movie overwhelms the senses because it tries to deal with so many issues . . . wide-spread poverty, transportation to the United States on the tops of freight trains, Mexican gang culture and violence, family relationships in an alien world, etc. One only wonders if this depicts the real world in Central America and Mexico. I don't know.

As an aside, after seeing Sholom Aleichem, I also wonder if it was this horrible for many immigrant groups to make it to American . . . such as the Jews from Russia in the 1890's or Armenians from Turkey? Maybe so. We only know the people who made it. What about those do didn't?

The cinematography is outstanding. Realistic Mexican towns, railroads and landscapes. Some of the romantic relationships are a little far fetched. Even so, this is a very important, a must see, movie . . . for those that can take the pain.