Film Review: Sin Nombre
It is difficult not to carry into your nightmares the tattooed face of Lil’ Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), the leader of the infamous Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13) portrayed in Cary Fukunaga’s debut film Sin Nombre. With MS emblazoned across his skin, Lil’ Mago is terror incarnate, his body’s markings a testament to a life beyond our comprehension.
Sin Nombre gives us a glimpse of these unimaginable lives. The film’s protagonist, Willy (Edgar Flores) is an MS-13 member who in a moment of reflection, kills Lil’ Mago before he can rape a girl on top of a freight train carrying Central American migrants north, through Mexico. The murder condemns Willy to the life of persecution, as his blood brothers set out to find him. It also binds him to the train and to Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), the young girl he rescues.
Two plots are intertwined with the journeys of the young protagonists. One is the story of the gang, largely unfamiliar to American audiences. The other is a more familiar tale of the south-north migration.