Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

SnoopyStyle Mayan Indian peasant siblings Enrique and Rosa live in the small mountain village of San Pedro, Guatemala. Their father and other labor organizers are killed by the military. Their mother is taken by the same forces. Rosa insists on joining Enrique who journeys north to El Norte or United States.This is an early crossing the border film. It's an indie without any big names. It's early in the subject matter so that it's more compared to the Grapes of Wrath. It's not quite as harsh as some that comes later. There is a naivety to some of this but it's very insightful for its times. The two leads have a great everyday feel. It's great for the era.

r-albury This movie is a touching story of a brother and sister trying to escape oppression in their native Guatemala and escape to 'El Norte' after the rest of their family has been taken by the army. We experience their hardships with them and see their fears and are constantly rooting for them to cross the border safely and hoping that they will find their place in the United States. They quickly realize that in 'El Norte' not everyone has a car and tons of money like their father had said. They bounce from city to city looking for work and avoiding deportation and realize that there is no place for them – not in Guatemala, Mexico or the United states. There is a lot of magical realism in the movie (which I'm not a fan of) and the ending is ambiguous but it is a great film that the viewer gets involved in emotionally.

royg-4 Two young and completely naive Guatemalan Indians are forced to flea their small village after their father is shot by government soldiers in a raid and their mother taken away.They make the trip north through Mexico to El Norte, the land of promise.This is a heartrending and unforgettable film, with occasional hilarity, of their journey and their life. Starting out simply you are soon completely drawn into their story, from the journey to their new life in San Diego as they attempt to adapt to El Norte, set in the larger context of the Latino and Mexican immigrant experience.I saw this film in its initial theatrical release in 1983, and a recent viewing reveals it has not dimmed. Its low budget origins are once or twice obvious, but are completely inconsequential for a film of this magnitude and quality.Nominated for the Best Screenplay in 1985. The first Oscar nomination for an independent film. Winner of numerous other awards. (And all this before Sundance and the plethora of festivals today.)Selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, 1995.The overwhelmingly superb reviews here and at amazon are no accident.(It's completely scandalous that a DVD has not been officially available here in the US since forever. However, you can purchase one based on the Australian DVD release at amazon or on ebay that will play on US machines. Just make sure it's designated region 1.)

mendez_pablo I was born in the Guatemala and to tell you the truth this movie has a lot of accurate information about the happenings in my native country. The movie tells you the story of a brother and sister and the awful reality of the trip they had to make to cross the southern border of the United States of America.The comment below mine says that the characters speak a "SOUTH American NATIVE LANGUAGE", but this information is incorrect (despite the fact that the person that wrote this comment apparently is educated enough, and gives classes in some university that i gladly do not attend to).Guatemala is part of Central America ... the territory that unites NORTH and SOUTH America. The language spoken by the characters has vocabulary from two Mayan languages: MAM & CAKCHIQUEL spoken by more than a million Guatemalans.Overall the movie is crude but a true statement of what illegal immigrants have to go through when they decide to make the trip to the USA. (This movie was shown in one of my human rights classes, it could be an accurate "source" of information that portraits reality without abusing it)