Sin Nombre Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Sin Nombre Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 10, 2010

Winner of the Cinematography and Directing awards at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the New Director's Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Cary Fukunaga, "Sin Nombre" (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Revolver Entertainment. The only supplemental features on the disc are: feature commentary with Director Cary Fukunaga and Producer Amy Kaufman and a gallery of deleted scenes. In Spanish, with imposed English subtitles. Region-B "locked".

Tattooed for life

Directed by Oakland-native Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre is the American answer to Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund’s City of God and Jose Padilha’s Elite Squad. Strangely enough, its cast is comprised of unknown Mexican actors. The entire film was also shot on location in Mexico. The dialog in it is also entirely in Spanish, not English.

So, why is Sin Nombre an American film? First, according to Fukunaga, it was inspired by the true story of 80 illegal Mexican immigrants who were abandoned in a truck in Texas. We don’t often hear about these people and their stories, but they exist, and too often too many of them lose their lives on both sides of our southern border. Second, Sin Nombre also introduces us to La Mara Salvatrucha, a powerful - and real - gang, which initially welcomed only Salvadorians, but now has members in Mexico and L.A. In recent years, the American media has started paying attention to the growing influence of La Mara Salvatrucha and other similar gangs in the region, and specifically the Mexican government’s inability to deal with them, but Sin Nombre is the first film that I have seen that shows in a very convincing fashion how serious the situation actually is.

There are two different stories in Sin Nombre. The first one is about a young girl from Honduras, Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), who agrees to follow her recently deported from the U.S. father back to New Jersey. They embark on a treacherous journey through Guatemala and Mexico, riding a train with hundreds of other soon to be illegal immigrants. The second story is about a young Mexican thug, Willy (Édgar Flores), nicknamed El Casper, who introduces a 12-year-old recruit, El Smiley (Kristian Ferrer), to La Mara Salvatrucha.

Lil Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), one of La Mara Salvatrucha’s local leaders, accidentally kills Willy’s girlfriend. Shortly after, he asks Willy and El Smiley to assist him in robbing the same train Sayra and her father are riding.

The moment Lil Mago approaches Sayra and attempts to rape her, however, something inside Willy snaps and he kills him. He sends El Smiley back to La Mara Salvatrucha -- and remains on the train, realizing that his days are now numbered. Filled with gratitude, Sayra asks Willy to come with her to New Jersey.

Chaos, brutality and desperation reign in Sin Nombre. They are not as suffocating as they are in Elite Squad, but I felt that they were just as powerful and crucial to the type of environment the creators of the film aspired to achieve. There are only a few short scenes where romantic overtones overshadow them.

What truly transforms Sin Nombre into a terrific film, however, are the visuals. Adriano Goldman’s cinematography is stunning. As the train passes through the Mexican countryside, we see abandoned cars, collapsed buildings, beggars wandering around, and dirty children throwing apples, or stones, at the immigrants. The atmosphere is incredible, and at times it truly feels as if we are amongst them, riding the same train to El Norte.

On the other hand, a film this direct and unafraid of portraying crime, poverty and human misery, as they exist, could be easily misinterpreted as exploiting them. But I am confident that most viewers would quickly realize that Sin Nombre has a very different goal, and realism is an integral part of it.

In 2009, Sin Nombre won the Cinematography and Directing awards at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the New Director's Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Sin Nombre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with VC-1 and granted a 1080p transfer, Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Revolver Entertainment.

Sin Nombre is a beautifully lensed film, and the high-definition transfer certainly shows it. Contrast, clarity and fine object-detail are consistently strong, and many of the panoramic vistas have that strong "popping" look. Edge-enhancement and macroblocking are never a serious issue of concern. Neither are ringing and excessive filtering. The color-scheme is also convincing - yellows, greens, blues, browns and blacks look rich and well saturated. Frankly, the cinematography is so strong, I am quite disappointed Sin Nombre never made it to my local theater. It would have been a very special experience seeing it on the big screen. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content. Also, I there is forced PAL-content that precedes the main manu).

Sin Nombre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Spanish Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0. For the record, even though there is an option to turn the English subtitles off, I could not do so on three different players. As you could see from our screencaptures, the subtitles also appear inside the image frame.

The Spanish Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is very strong. The surround channels are not overly active, but Marcelo Zarvos' ambient music score sounds terrific. There are quite a few shootouts in Sin Nombre that also benefit greatly from the loseless audio treatment. On the other hand, the dialog is crisp, clear and exceptionally easy to follow. Finally, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks or hissings to report in this review.

As expected, the Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 track is quite flat, lacking the depth and fluidity of the Spanish Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. Frankly, there is an enormous gap in quality between the two.

Sin Nombre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Deleted Scenes - a gallery of fifteen deleted scenes. In Spanish, with imposed English subtitles. (PAL, 11 min).

Commentary - feature commentary with Director Cary Fukunaga and Producer Amy Kaufman. I listened to this audio commentary from start to finish, as I was very curious about the locations seen in Sin Nombre as well as the actors playing some of the controversial characters. And I wasn't disappointed - the audio commentary is very well done, offering an abundance of information addressing the film's production history, budget, the cast and crew members, the film's reception by the critics, etc.

Sin Nombre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre is a powerful, disturbingly brutal yet stunningly beautiful film that more than likely won't see a North American Blu-ray release. Kudos to British distributors Revolver Entertainment for treating it right. If you could play Region-B "locked" discs, I encourage you to consider adding Sin Nombre to your collections. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.