Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS13, is one of the biggest gangs in the world with more than 70.000 members. Originating in Los Angeles (the gang was originally formed to protect immigrants from other gangs), MS13 grew very quickly and its members are considered to be extremely dangerous. Its growth in Mexico was quick as well and there are many towns in which the gang controls a lot of parts of daily life. Small enterpreneurs have to pay protection money and there are a lot of gang wars going on.
MS13 is an important part of Sin Nombre, a movie which was written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.
With Sin Nombre, Fukunaga wanted to give the viewer a closer look at gang life, but also show the long journey that some people make to try and reach America to start a new life. He did two years of research on the subject and has asked input from MS13 members to make sure the script was realistic. This results in a very interesting movie.
Willy (Edgar Flores), is a member of MS13 who is about to introduce a boy to the gang. His initiation is tough as someone will have to be attacked for 13 seconds and is not allowed to defend himself why everyone is beating the person up. When someone manages to get through it and becomes a memeber, he can no longer have secrets for others, but because Willy knows the consequences if he would tell about one of his secrets he tries to hide it. The gang leader starts to have doubts about him and he’s forced to prove himself.
Another storyline is about Sayra (Paulina Gaitán), who travels to America together with her father and uncle. It’s a dangerous journey on top of trains and not a lot of people make it. It doesn’t take long before the two storylines come together, which results in a very tense situation.
The movie has a lot of violence and a depressing story, but is well worth watching.
Score: 8
I really enjoyed this movie. Given the political climate, it would be so easy to dismiss this as political propaganda but the movie is really about putting faces on the thousands of people trying to make their way to America with almost nothing but hopes and the clothes on their back.
I didn’t get the feeling at all that it was propaganda either. There is also a documentary called Which Way Home which is all about those train journeys. Have not seen it myself, but the trailer for it looked interesting.
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