Sin Nombre is one of those films that got us so excited we had to find out more. Luckily writer/director Cary Fukunaga was only too happy to gives us the ins and outs of this fantastic new film.

MV: One thing got me about the film was the range of characters undertaking this epic journey, what led you to tell a story about such a diverse group?

CF: A lot of the the story came out of the research, there were so many characters that I wanted to play with but it was just a matter of what could fit in a feature film format. So I wrote this triptych coming out of a short film I'd done called Victoria Para Chino, but I eventually tossed that. Once I was down doing first person research and was really getting an idea of what world was like and how much more complex it was, I focussed more on the specific characters, and tried to infuse some of the personality types of the people I met along the way who were really interesting. I felt like I could talk about them better than if if I simply inventing a character.

MV: It was a lengthy research process then?

CF: It was pretty lengthy I'd say, the research process went all the way up until we were shooting. I was still making trips down to the prisons to meet gang members pretty much like a month and a half before shooting.

MV: It must have felt like a pretty epic project at that point, were there times when you felt it was getting out of control?

CF: I never felt like it was getting out of control, there were times when I was definitely getting tired of the subject! You can only focus on one thing for so long and then you kind of want to change worlds.

MV: It's strange to hear you talking clinically about this process, because I think the look you've achieved and the stories you tell are very intimate and personal.

CF: I think the intimate and personal comes out naturally once you start writing the story. Because it's not my world, it's not something I grew up in, I needed to immerse myself of the clinical side of it to really understand the hows and whys. Not on a huge socio-political scale though, I just mean the hows and whys of individual choices to do things, and what the elements were in Honduras and Guatemala and Chiapas and how the wheels turn in this big machine, and then after that I could infuse my own experience, people I met along the way, and flesh out characters that way so it becomes personal and it becomes intimate through the process of dramatising.

MV: What drives you, as a filmmaker, to do all this?

CF: You know, I never really thought about it to be honest. Once I start doing something I can't not finish it, so I guess I've always done that. I never dropped a class in University even if I didn't like it! I just try to see things through to the end. I don't really think about whether it's hard or not, I just do it.

MV: It seems to have paid off, the people involved read like a who's who of American cinema! Did you ever think you were capable of amassing support like that?

CF: Slowly it all kind of happened. Sundance Labs were a major part of developing the project, and that was kind of it's own step. And then to have Amy Kaufman, who brought Focus, get involved really took things forward. To get the film made took a lot of maneuvering. It's not a normal for a studio to make, it's risky in a sense, not only because of the dark subject matter but it's in Spanish, doesn't have any actors recognisable in America, and that's risky. We were very lucky to have it happen when it happened. I don't know if today, with the economy as is it, whether it could have.

MV: What's been the most satisfying experience of the film so far then?

CF: I think one of the most satisfying moments for me was seeing Edgar Flores, who was Willy or El Caspar in the film, at Sundance. It had taken some time to get him into the States, and it was his first time there, and when he finally saw the film... he's not a trained actor, so I couldn't talk about a scene with him the way I would with the other actors, he just lived in that moment and so that's how I directed him. He didn't even realise what the whole story was - I'm not even sure he read the entire script (!) - so, to see him watch the entire film was amazing. He started crying and cried throughout the entire film, and then came up on stage and was crying on stage, and it got to the point where there was sympathy crying across the whole cast and crew there. Everyone was crying on stage and people were clapping in the audience, and that was great. To see all of these young actors who were a part of this, and even the cinematographer and other department heads who were breaking out of the Mexican film world,  it was a very fulfilling moment to part of.

MV: You've had a hand in a lot of different parts of the filmmaking process, cinematography, writing, directing, and all the research: is this part of your outlook on filmmaking or did the jobs just pile up?

CF: There was a time when I thought I wanted to be a cinematographer, and that I'd be better suited for that. I love cinematography and there's a lot less stress there because you're dealing with less personalities! It's a uniquely difficult job, but at lot of the time when you're director you're putting our fires and managing personalities in various departments. It's a lot more tiring, and almost political. There's something about the technical side of things that allows you to focus on the crafts and not worry about all the human interactions.

MV: You're not going to give up directing are you?

CF: No, I still like to shoot because it's almost like a vacation but still within the world of filmmaking. I think I'll always be hands on though. I just shot a commercial for Levi's for example, and I just loved being in amongst the crew and putting up C-stands and rigging stuff and drilling stuff, just any tactile stuff I can do on set. Especially if it speeds up the process because I'm also really impatient!

MV: It's a very intense approach, with lots on your plate, did you ever have to stand back and count to ten? Especially working with such young actors.

CF: Yeah because it's a different hat. Even writing to directing is two different hats. You have to look at what you've written differently, from multiple perspectives even. When you write something you're all the different characters in your head, but then when you direct and you're trying to communicate the different ideas and also let the actors bring something of themselves to it, you have to separate yourself and can't be precious about it. And also, just for me, it was difficult just letting the cinematographer get on with it and not micromanaging. At times I had to think to focus more on the actors because you can't just focus on one thing, you have to spread yourself out across all different departments. So, yeah, taking a step back was something I did have to remind myself very often!

MV: Did that technical propensity help with any of the more challenging scenes you shot?

CF: Definitely. It definitely helped. Especially just problem-solving, there's never any time and you need this many shots and suddenly halfway through the day you have to cut a third of those shots to finish the other half of the day, and then you have to simplify lighting and camera setups... I mean I could pretty quickly know what lights I wanted, or the minimum we could get away with.

MV: Was there a particularly challenging moment when you had to battle the odds and were just happy to get the shot done?

CF: Not especially one shot. But for example we built this thing we called the process train which was two and a half train cars built on trailers in this country road. We did that because we only had five days on a real train to supplement the shots we built this set and it was the same set we shot the attack scene on with the rain. And we just kept running out of time and we had this idea for the night sequences that we would probably light a kilometre of the road and have the trailer run through it but it just wasn't feasible. The trailer jackknifes, it can't back up, it takes an hour and a half to get everyone off, turn it around, set it up and get everyone back on, so we could really go one direction and stop. So that was it's own kind of ballet! But the night sequence, we only had a few hours of night to get a bunch of scenes, we didn't have enough crew to pre-rig the lighting, no time to set it up, so I just told them to set up a couple of lights around the pack and a couple on some trees and we'll use some junior lights on the actors. We got the sky lit up real pretty and had just this basic, industrial lighting allowing us to register the actors on camera.

MV: Wow, that sounds like some amazing problem-solving moments.

CF: Those are my favourite moments I have to say. Every little challenge you overcome makes you feel like you've accomplished something, it's tangible. It's a small battle in a longer war!

Check out our Sin Nombre review HERE. The film's out in the UK on Friday 14th August and we can't recommend it highly enough.

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