I found this British-American independent film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, obviously I had never heard of it before, but it was an easy to remember title, I hoped it would be a worthy entry. Basically in a small rural Guatemalan village called San Pedro live the Xuncax family, a group of indigenous Mayans. Arturo (Ernesto Gómez Cruz) is a coffee picker and his wife a homemaker, he and his family, including son Enrique (David Villalpando), discuss the possibility of going to the United States for a better life. Arturo has attempted to form a labour union among the workers, but one of the co-workers is bribed to betray them, they are murdered by government troops, and Arturo's severed head is seen hanging from a tree. Enrique learns that many villagers have been rounded up by soldiers, so he and his sister Rosa (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) decide to flee Guatemala and head to the north. The two teenagers travel through Mexico, they try to get a lift in the back of a truck but fail to convince the Mexican truck driver (Emilio Del Haro) that they are indigenous Mexicans. But they succeed in convincing a U.S. Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican swearing, as suggested by a friend who knows how all Mexicans speak. They make another attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexican border, but it is a gruelling experience as they are forced to crawl through a sewer pipe, where dozens of rats inhabit, but they are successful. Rosa and Enrique discover the difficulties of living in America without official documentation, they start in a cheap motel in San Diego, before continuing further north to settle in Los Angeles. The brother and sister team find work and a place to live and initially feel good about their decision. However, Rosa is nearly captured during an immigration raid and must find a new job, she finds work as a domestic, but is confused by how to use a washing machine. Enrique becomes a restaurant busboy, and he improves his English with language classes, he is promoted to a position as a waiter's assistant. He is later approached by a wealthy businesswoman who has a better-paying job for him in Chicago as a foreman, he initially declines, but his jealous co-worker reports him to immigration. As Enrique meets the businesswoman and decides to take the position, Rosa becomes gravely ill with typhus contracted from the rat bites she received during their border crossing. Enrique is informed by a friend that she may be dying, he initially wants to go ahead and catch the flight to Chicago, but he makes the tough decision to lose the opportunity to be by his sister's side. As Enrique visits the hospital, Rosa laments that she will not live to enjoy the fruits of their harrowing journey to America, and sums up that in their own land they have no home, in Mexico there is only poverty, and in the U.S. they are unaccepted, she questions if they will ever find a home, but suggests they will find a home when they die. Rosa dies peacefully, and Enrique waits with other day-labour hopefuls in a parking lot, offering his services, he is temporarily employed once again, but he is distracted by haunting images of his sister's lost desires for a better life. The final shot is a severed head hanging from a rope in a tree, like the one seen at the beginning, it is shadowed, so it is unclear whose head it is, perhaps it is the same head as before, perhaps Enrique committed suicide? Also starring Alicia del Lago as Lupe Xuncax, Lupe Ontiveros as Nacha, Trinidad Silva as Monte Bravo, Enrique Castillo as Jorge, Ugly Betty's Tony Plana as Carlos, Diane Cary as Alice Harper and Mike Gomez as Jaime. The performances of Villalpando and Gutierrez as the Latino brother and sister peasants are well done, it is a simple story of siblings on an arduous trek to find the promised land, but this is filled with both optimism and despair, it is sobering glimpse of reality and has almost a documentary style, which adds to the feel of it, all in all it is an interesting drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Good!
Review of El Norte
