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According to the movies, America is currently in the midst of breast-beating and garment-rending over its own cruel immigration policy.
It's tough to get to the land of plenty, but plenty are still willing to risk their lives to try.
Latest entry in the timely film topic is Sin Nombre, a big winner at Sundance this year for director Cary Fukunaga -- who, incredibly, makes his feature debut with this stunning film.
Sin Nombre is the story of two seemingly very different people, one a quiet Honduran girl and the other a violent Mexican gang member, who team up to survive the trek to the border of Texas.
You can argue the ethics of using poverty and desperation as movie fodder on your own time.
Sin Nombre is a spare, intelligent, visually transporting film, and despite some moments of somewhat shaky logic, it's also some gripping storytelling.
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Sin Nombre, which translates 'nameless', begins in Mexico with the life of Casper (Edgar Flores). He's a young man whose membership in the Mara Salvatrucha brotherhood is the centre of his existence, and he has recruited Smiley, a gang wannabe aged about 12. Smiley (Kristian Ferrer) gets viciously kicked by the whole gang as part of his initiation, and is later told he'll have to kill one of the gang's enemies as part of his initiation. The violence throughout Sin Nombre is quietly brutal and realistic, and endlessly disturbing.
In a parallel story we meet Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) a teenage girl in Honduras who is going to try to get to the border of Texas with her uncle and her father. Her dad has been living in New Jersey with his new family, but was deported. He intends to return to the Garden State via illegal entry, and take his old family along with him.
"Half of these people will not make it, but we will," Sayra's father predicts. The Hondurans make their way to Tapachula, Mexico, and wait in the train yards for a train that they can ride -- on the top, not inside -- to the U.S. border.
That's where they encounter Casper and a few of the Mara; as the gang violence escalates, Casper has to go on the run from the rest of the brotherhood. Sayra attaches herself to the fierce Casper, and before long they are on the move together. Dodging immigration agents and vengeful gang members, they move toward the border of the United States.
Sin Nombre is distinguished by elegant, understated performances, and better yet, they come from a cast that's more or less unknown to North American movie audiences -- the better to willingly suspend your disbelief, my dear.
Both a drama and a thriller, Sin Nombre was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year and won awards for director Cary Fukunaga and cinematographer Adriano Goldman.
It won't disappoint you.
That's rare, don't you think?
The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles.
(This film is rated 14-A)