I saw three wonderful and very different films this weekend.

The first, and pictured above, is Sin Nombre. I first heard of this film when it won two Audience awards at Sundance. It quickly left my mind as I knew it would be a few months before it screened anywhere close to NYC. About a month later, I randomly met the Director/Writer Cary Fukunaga on the dance floor of a club in Berlin at 6am on a Wednesday. That night I learned he was a sweetheart of a guy and a good dancer, but what I didn’t know is that he he had made one of the most disturbing, incredible and effective first-feature films I have seen in years.

“I want the audience, after an hour and a half, to feel like they have gone on a bit of the journey themselves.”

And that is exactly how I felt. After three years of researching, taking trains with immigrants and studying gangs in Honduras and Mexico, Fukunaga had done enough research to make an incredibly realistic immigrant and gang film. This film blew my mind, and made me completely afraid and saddened by the insane journey many immigrants make to come to the United States. Using mostly non or beginning actors, the film captures a time and place that most people opt out of thinking about or even reading about because it is downright scary and devastating. I’ll be the first to admit that I know little about gangs and gang violence and how it effects the lives of the people in and around them. Fukunaga does an almost perfect job of glimpsing these sad realities and strong individuals with a clear knowledge and respect for the films subjects and cultures.

It’s an incredible film worth a watch. A million steps above all of the “poverty porn.” Plus…his next film is a  musical.