Sin Nombre

The premise of this film was utterly unattractive, I just don’t like stories about poor people from the backwoods, especially when they are in love. I ignored it at the cinema two years ago, but what finally convinced me to watch it is the interesting way Fukunaga had approached Jane Eyre. The resulting impression is just as I expected: mixed. It’s a very well made film, but its plot and the realistic portray of Mexico, gangs and Honduran refugees didn’t attract me at all. (04/08/2011)

Clean, honest, and balanced between Gomorrah-style documentary slaughter and sensitively rendered melodrama. The word riveting doesn't come into play here, but Fukunaga's debut is still a very strong and distinctive film with a very powerful message about the state of the world. (28/08/2009)

If “When, where and what happens to whom" weren’t so clearly pre-determined from the very start, then it wasn’t far away from giving the “western" viewer a similarly hard slap as the work of José Padilha has over the past few years, specifically for instance City of God. (05/04/2010)

Latin America, with its exotic nature, ethnic and cultural diversity, enormous social contrasts, and complex political situation, has always fascinated me - even with all its controversial phenomena and extremes. Sin Nombre is a social drama and at the same time a crime story set in the infamous world of gangs that defy Central European notions of organized crime with their size, cruelty, and influence. The most influential gangs, such as Mara Salvatrucha or 18, have well over one hundred thousand members and control neighborhoods in several American cities. Sin Nombre can be linked with watching the excellent documentary La Vida Loca. I consider it ideal to watch both films at the same time. Director Fukunaga has the ability to capture the social reality of everyday life and the atmosphere of the outskirts of Latin American cities. The cinematography is brilliant, and the actors are cast perfectly in their roles. I have no reason to complain about anything regarding this film. Overall impression: 90%. (31/08/2018)