brooke I’m trying to think of the last movie that punched me this hard in the gut. Or in the heart.

casey We usually write these recaps immediately after watching the movie, and it’s hard to put my feelings into words right now. What do you say about something like El Norte? For starters, it’s good.

brooke It’s really good. Brief summary:

Enrique and Rosa  Xuncax (David Villalpando and Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) are a brother and sister of Mayan descent living Guatamala during its long civil war. The workers in their village, led by their father Arturo, are organizing against rich landowners who, as Arturo tells Enrique, only see the poor as arms to do their work. Soon the military ambushes a gathering of workers, beheads Arturo, and begins clearing all indigenous people from the village, a nod to the actual genocide committed against the Maya during the war. Ricky and Rosa’s family is rounded up, and the siblings left with a choice: stay and wait to be slaughtered or go north. Read More