El Norte

Guatemala, United Kingdom, United States

1983

141 Min

Color

1.78:1

English, Maya, Spanish, K'iche'

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

CAST Ernesto Gómez Cruz, David Villalpando, Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, Alicia del Lago, Miguel Gomez Giron, Jose Martin Ruano, Stella Quan, Eraclio Zepeda, Lupe Ontiveros, Trinidad Silva, Abel Franco, Enrique Castillo, Tony Plana, Diane Cary, Mike Gomez

SOUND Julia Evershade, Marshall Winn

Sundance, Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Sundance (From the Collection)

Synopsis

Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. It’s a story that happens every day, but until Gregory Nava’s groundbreaking El Norte (The North), the personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism. A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery, El Norte is a lovingly rendered, heartbreaking story of hope and survival, which critic Roger Ebert called “a Grapes of Wrath for our time.” —The Criterion Collection

Director

Gregory Nava

Gregory Nava (born April 10, 1949 in San Diego, California) is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage.

Education

Nava graduated from St. Augustine High School in San Diego and went on to attended film school at UCLA where he earned an MFA in 1976. At UCLA he directed the short film The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva (based on the life of García Lorca), and for this work, won the Best Dramatic Film Award at the National Student Film Festival.

Career

Gregory Nava (born April 10, 1949 in San Diego, California) is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage.

Education

Career

While an instructor at Moorpark College teaching classes in cinematography, Nava’s first feature film, The Confessions of Amans, won the Best First Feature Award at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1976. Later, he came to the attention of Hollywood producers due to the success of El Norte, which garnered Nava and his wife Anna Thomas an Academy Award nomination, among other accolades, for the screenplay. In 1995 the film was registered by the Library of Congress, National Film Registry. According to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, “El Norte tells the story with astonishing visual beauty, with unashamed melodrama, with anger leavened by hope. It is a Grapes of Wrath for our time.”

Further collaborations with his wife Thomas include: The Confessions of Amans, A Time of Destiny, My Family, and Frida (screenplay), and other works.

Nava had further directing success in 1997 with the film Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez, who was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

From 2003 to 2004, Nava executive produced the television series American Family: Journey of Dreams for PBS. He also directed a few episodes.

Recent projects

In 2006, Nava produced, wrote, and directed the film Bordertown which made its debut at the Berlin Film Festival on February 15, 2007. The film, based on true events, is a political thriller about a series of unsolved murders in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. It stars Jennifer Lopez as a Chicago-based reporter who follows the story. The film was shot in New Mexico and Mexico. —Wikipedia

read less

Wall

Displaying 4 of 5 wall posts.

see all

Mike Koo

23Jul11

A stirring and absorbing saga that is even more relevant today.

pyota

8Nov10

so moving

Sonja

19Jul10

amazing how 25 year old movies are still relevant today.

Carlos Quintão

3Mar10

Celebrado drama sobre dois irmãos que fogem da Guatemala para os EUA em busca de uma vida mais digna. Foi pioneiro no assunto e é meticuloso na atenção aos detalhes da realidade dos imigrantes. Rodado com atores amadores. Algumas imagens evocativas lembram, por vezes, o trabalho de Olmi e dos Taviani. Não tem a mesma força e evita o tom político de um Loach, ancorando-se demasiadamente em ferramentas melodramáticas.