El Norte

El Norte (1983)

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.

Date of release
1983-10-11
TMDB
7.1 / 10 (88)
Runtime
2h 21m
Genres
Adventure, Drama
Director
Gregory Nava

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $800K
  • Filmed in: California and Mexico
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

El Norte is a 1983 independent drama film, directed by Gregory Nava. The screenplay was written by Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas, based on Nava's story. The movie was first presented at the Telluride Film Festival in 1983, and its wide release was in January 1984.

Production

When Nava and his production crew were, in effect, kicked out of Mexico during the film shoot, he had to re-create a Mexican village in California. Nava said "We were filming in Mexico during the end of the López Portillo presidency, one of the last of the old-fashioned caciques to rule Mexico. One day, men with machine guns took over the set. I had guns pointed at my head.

Nava tells the story that, at one point, Mexican police kidnapped their accountant and held him for ransom, and at the same time, his parents had to pose as tourists in order to smuggle exposed film out of the country in their suitcases.

The film was shot in Mexico and California. In Mexico, the locations were Chiapas, Morelos, México, D.F., and Tijuana. In California, the locations were San Diego and Los Angeles.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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