El Norte. 1983. UK/USA. Directed by Gregory Nava. Screenplay by Nava, Anna Thomas. With Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando. DCP courtesy Academy Film Archive. In English, Quiché, Spanish; English subtitles. 141 min.
Inspired by experiences from his own youth and research done among Indigenous Guatemalan exiles in California who had fled ethnic persecution beginning in the 1960s, Gregory Nava (along with co-screenwriter Anna Thomas) created this mournful portrait of two siblings who dream of a new life in “the North” after their family is killed in a political massacre. One of the most powerful cinematic portrayals of this harrowing cross-border journey and the unforgiving working conditions that await on the other side, El Norte is also an aesthetically accomplished, poetic portrayal of Indigenous heritage in the tradition of magic realism.