Film informs and entertains viewers

"Sin Nombre" is the kind of debut that most directors pray for. Cary Joji Fukunaga created a film so confident, beautiful, and brutal that I'll be looking forward to every film he does from now on.

Fukunaga is a Japanese-American, which to some may seem like an odd choice to direct a film about Mexican gang violence and immigration, but producers Diego Luna ("Milk," "Mr. Lonely," "Frida," and "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights") and Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien," "The Motorcycle Diaries," and "Blindness") obviously knew what they were doing when working with this first time director. "Sin Nombre" is the kind of film that gives you a slightly deeper understanding of the world around you, but also works as a fabulous choice of entertainment.

The film chronicles the journey of a young Mexican man nicknamed "El Casper" (Edgar Flores) who is a member of the vicious real life Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha. Casper helps recruit a prepubescent boy nicknamed Smiley, who gains his nickname by enduring his initiation beating with a smile.

Smiley looks up to the frighteningly tattooed gang leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta), whose face is inked to resemble an ancient war mask. Lil' Mago is ruthless, but Smiley sees him as a father figure, and possibly a demigod. Even when Lil' Mago extends Smiley's initiation sadistically by counting down 12 seconds repeatedly, Smiley adores him.

It's no wonder that Smiley develops into the most disturbing character in the film. Eventually, Lil' Mago attempts to rape Casper's girlfriend, and ends up killing her. When Casper asks what happened, Lil' Mago chillingly replies "The Devil took her."

One thing leads to another and Casper is on the run from his own mara (gang) along with Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a South American attempting to cross the border and eventually reach her family in New Jersey. The journey is harrowing, beautiful, and sometimes intense due to the intervention of the Salvatrucha. The cinematography is gorgeous; Mexico breaths with a life all its own as the immigrants ride on the top of a freight train towards the unknown destiny of El Norte.

Sometimes passersby throw fruit at them as a sign of affection, sometimes they throw rocks as a sign of hostility. Nothing is ever certain for these poor souls. However, this film is not trying to beat the viewer over the head with a heavy-handed message about immigration. It's simply telling a story, and we get the feeling that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of other stories just like this one.

I particularly liked the way in which Casper was not a Hollywood cliché of a troubled young man looking for redemption; he was simply a confused, sad young man looking to run. But a degree of redemption does manage to find him.

"Sin Nombre" is the kind of riveting foreign film designed for people unaccustomed to foreign film. Some of the dialogue and character interaction seems slightly anglicized, but that is a minor criticism. It is the kind of film that creates a distinct sense of time and place, and gives the viewer a slightly greater understanding of the way in which various people live. If there's one foreign film that you have to see in 2009, make it "Sin Nombre."