Directed by:
Gregory NavaCinematography:
James GlennonCast:
Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, Lupe Ontiveros, Enrique Castillo, Mike Gomez, Sheryl Bernstein, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Diane Cary, Trinidad Silva, Larry Cedar (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Mayan Indian peasants, tired of being thought of as nothing more than "brazos fuertes" ("strong arms", i.e., manual laborers) and organizing in an effort to improve their lot in life, are discovered by the Guatemalan army. After the army destroys their village and family, a brother and sister, teenagers who just barely escaped the massacre, decide they must flee to "El Norte" ("the North", i.e., the USA). After receiving clandestine help from friends and humorous advice from a veteran immigrant on strategies for traveling through Mexico, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, uneducated, and illegal immigrants. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (2)
A strong story is simply a strong story, and when it is also brilliantly acted and well directed, it becomes simply a great film. It doesn't matter at all that it is spoken in Spanish here. In fact, it wouldn't even matter if you didn't have subtitles. The actors are so fantastic and the story so brutally beautifully moving that you will shed a tear at the end and then just sigh, accepting that this is how it is.
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Strong drama. Two Indian siblings leave from Guatemala to go to the “North”, the United States. On their way they have to overcome several difficulties (crossing the Mexico/US border, a brilliant scene in the tunnels!), which continue even after they are already in America. How has the journey and the new environment changed the siblings? Have they changed at all? At some point, the film (and in particular the protagonists) felt almost too naive (how to make someone sit on glue quick an easy), but that was likely the intention (the confrontation of pure innocence with the rotten reality of the modern world). Either way, thumbs up, this deserves to be better known.
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