--- title: "El Norte" year: 1983 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/el-norte" fi1m_id: "el-norte" imdb_id: "tt0085482" tmdb_id: 17435 wikidata_id: "Q1446886" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-09-26T01:04:04.349225+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T01:04:42.523071+00:00" region: "FI" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # El Norte (1983) Directed by Gregory Nava · 2h 21m · Adventure, Drama ## Identity El Norte - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/el-norte - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** el-norte - **IMDb ID:** tt0085482 - **TMDB ID:** 17435 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1446886 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085482/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/17435, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1446886 **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 67 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Brother and sister walk to the promised land, and the promised land wants its floors cleaned > Gregory Nava’s account of two Guatemalan siblings walking north is earnest, sometimes clumsy and too often told by its score. It does not matter much. The Guatemalan opening is as good as anything made about migration, and the crossing left us shaking. ## Synopsis Guatemala, in the highlands. Rosa (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) and her brother Enrique (David Villalpando) live in a small village with their parents, Arturo (Ernesto Gómez Cruz) and Lupe (Alicia del Lago), working land that belongs to someone else. Then the soldiers come, and by morning the brother and sister have nothing left to stay for. Their godmother Josefita (Stella Quan) gives them what money she has and tells them about the North, a country she knows only from rumour and pictures, where even the poor are said to have money. They set off on foot for Mexico, the border and the United States, where they know nobody and do not yet speak the language. Waiting there are Nacha (Lupe Ontiveros) and Monte (Trinidad Silva), who know exactly what newcomers are worth. ## Review Gregory Nava’s film takes a brother and sister from Guatemala to Los Angeles, and it takes 141 minutes to do it. It follows them out of their own country, through Mexico and into the United States, and it is plainly meant as an epic about the poor, told from inside their shoes for once rather than from the charity’s doorway. It is sincere to a fault, and the fault is real. It is also a good film for most of its length, and for one stretch in the middle it is something more than that. The Guatemalan stretch is the best written. Nava and Anna Thomas, who wrote the script together, spend their time on ordinary things: work, the family at table, the godmother Josefita (Stella Quan) telling the children what she has heard about the North. When the soldiers come, Nava keeps the violence mostly at the edge of the frame, so we hear more than we see. Ernesto Gómez Cruz gives Arturo a tired, level intelligence in his few scenes. He knows what speaking up will cost him, and he speaks anyway. James Glennon shoots the village in deep colour, the reds and purples of the women’s woven clothes against green hillsides and morning mist, and Hilary Wright and Daniel Lemus Valenzuela dress the villagers as if the cloth were the last thing anyone would sell. The further north the siblings go, the flatter and greyer Glennon lets the light become, until Los Angeles looks like a car park at noon. The film looks cheaper the moment they arrive, which we take to be the point. Betsy Blankett Milicevic cuts the village slowly and the border in short, nervous pieces, and the difference is felt before it is noticed. Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez plays Rosa with a watching face that gives very little away and misses nothing. David Villalpando’s Enrique is quicker, prouder, a boy who believes what he has been told about the North. Lupe Ontiveros, as Nacha, the woman who shows Rosa how the city works, is brisk and funny and supplies most of the film’s air. Trinidad Silva’s Monte, who runs the motel and finds them work, is the first American they meet who understands exactly what they are worth. Here is what we felt. The crossing itself, which we will not describe, was the most frightened we have been in a cinema for some time. Glennon lights it with almost nothing and Nava refuses to cut away, so that we are in the dark with them for as long as they are, and what they meet on the way is shown plainly. We had our hands at our mouths. Then the film lifts them out into the light, and we found we were as relieved and as suspicious of the light as they were. The flaws are the ones you would guess. Emil Richards and Malecio Martinez’s score tells us to grieve at moments when Gutiérrez has already done the grieving for us, and it does this often. The dream sequences, in slow motion and white light, belong to a softer film. The Los Angeles stretch has speeches in it: characters stop to say what the picture means, and the picture had already said it. Most critics have found it sentimental, and they are right; we simply did not mind as much as they did. Set against what else was being made in 1983, there was almost nothing that put two Guatemalan peasants at the centre of the frame and asked an audience to walk with them for two and a quarter hours. That is not an excuse for the speeches. It is a reason to sit through them. See it for the first two-thirds and forgive the last its explaining. Bring a handkerchief and do not be embarrassed about needing it; the film is not. *Fi1m score 72, published 26 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics receive El Norte warmly, if not rapturously, and the praise gathers around its compassion: the decision to stay with two young migrants and their hopes rather than lecture about the politics around them. Reviewers admire the naturalistic performances and the docudramatic look, which most feel keep the film clear of easy tears, and the cinematography draws credit, with the Mexican stretch of the journey singled out as the strongest passage. Injustice, as one early review puts it, is the engine of the story. The reservations cluster on sentiment. Several critics find the film tipping into melodrama in its later stretches, and the sharpest dissent comes from Slant Magazine, which argues that the script and over-earnest playing make the immigrant experience feel inauthentic and the filmmaking condescending to its subject. The spread is fairly narrow all the same: nobody dismisses it outright, and even the doubters credit its ambition. The disagreement is whether the earnestness serves the story or smothers it. ## Straight answers **Is El Norte worth watching?** *El Norte* is worth watching for anyone with patience for a slow, sincere film about migration, and we scored it 72. The Guatemalan opening and the border crossing are as good as anything made on the subject, and the crossing left us frightened in a way few films manage. The Los Angeles stretch explains too much and the score tells you when to weep, but the first two-thirds earn the forgiveness. **How long is El Norte, and what is it rated?** *El Norte* runs 2h 21m. It is an adventure and drama film. **Where can I watch El Norte in Finland?** *El Norte* is not on any streaming or rental service in Finland at the moment. It is available in 1 other country; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. ### Reviews we read (6) - **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (4/5): Parkinson gives the film a positive assessment for its compassionate focus on the human experience of migration. He praises its naturalistic performances and docudramatic style, which help avoid overt sentimentality. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-5zy3s8/el-norte/) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (79/100, inferred): The headline describes the film as a fine movie. It singles out injustice as a force driving the film. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/22/arts/film-view-el-norte-a-fine-movie-fueled-by-injustice.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (71/100, inferred): The page URL identifies a Great Movies review of El Norte, but its text is blocked, so the critic’s verdict and specific praise or complaint cannot be verified. The available page content does not provide enough information to summarize the review further. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-el-norte-1983) - **Time Out**, CPea (64/100, inferred): The critic’s verdict cannot be determined because the review text is unavailable. No specific praise or complaint is visible in the provided page content. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/el-norte) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (60/100, inferred): The review finds the film an ambitious, sometimes overly sentimental epic with a mixed but generally appreciative effect. It singles out the Mexican section as the strongest and praises the cinematography. [Read](https://variety.com/1982/film/reviews/el-norte-1200425546/) - **Slant Magazine**, Matt Noller (2/4): Noller argues that the film’s important subject and good intentions are undermined by shallow, condescending filmmaking. He particularly criticizes its melodramatic script and over-earnest performances for making the immigrant experience feel inauthentic. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/el-norte/) ## Details - **Director:** Gregory Nava - **Director:** Gregory Nava - **Screenplay:** Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas - **Story:** Gregory Nava - **Cinematography:** James Glennon - **Editor:** Betsy Blankett Milicevic - **Music:** Malecio Martinez, Emil Richards - **Costume design:** Hilary Wright, Daniel Lemus Valenzuela - **Producer:** Anna Thomas - **Cast:** Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez as Rosa; David Villalpando as Enrique; Ernesto Gómez Cruz as Arturo; Lupe Ontiveros as Nacha; Trinidad Silva as Monte; Alicia del Lago as Lupe; Mike Gomez as Informer; Jose Martin Ruano as Foreman - **Runtime:** 2h 21m - **First release (the UK):** 11 October 1983 - **Genres:** Adventure, Drama - **Budget:** $800,000 ## Where to watch in Finland Not streaming, renting or buying in Finland at the last check. Also available in: US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1985: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Grapes of Wrath* (1940), Fi1m 86: Ford’s Okies drive west into the same promise and the same wages. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-grapes-of-wrath.md) - *In This World* (2002): Two Afghan boys go overland to London; Winterbottom keeps the camera on their faces. - *Sin Nombre* (2009): Central Americans ride the freight trains north, with the gangs riding beside them. - *La Jaula de Oro* (2013): Guatemalan teenagers make the same journey thirty years on, and it has not got easier. - *Dheepan* (2015): A Sri Lankan family arrives in a Paris estate; Audiard films arrival as its own siege. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/el-norte