Miss Bala trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swo_p0yX-vg

Miss Bala imdb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1911600/

NYFF Press Conference for Miss Bala with Naranjo and Sigman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyfM7dS0B40

Miss Bala NY Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/movies/gerardo-naranjos-miss-bala-depicts...

The film is based loosely on an incident involving 2008's Miss Sinaloa, Laura Zúñiga. She was arrested along with suspected gang members outside Guadalajara, Jalisco, reflected in the film's concluding scenes. Miss Bala suggests that Laura's victory was fixed through criminal activity. In Complex Magazine, Naranjo states after meeting Zúñiga that, "I really didn’t want to go into their psyches. I guess the film has a very strong point-of-view, and we refuse to get into the minds of these guys, because I think that’s what every other movie does… I wanted to live the experience from the point-of-view of an innocent person."

News broadcast including real footage of Laura Zúñiga and gang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZGQdYSHSvU

Analysis of Miss Bala

The title of the film flashes briefly on the screen. It is not about the individual, but a collective group who have been drawn in to the world of drug trafficking. It is not Laura's name that appears, but the title of Miss Bullet, which is exemplified by the introduction to her character as shot from behind her head. These shots continue throughout the film, as we are introduced to new characters, their individual traits and personalities are not what is important, but their representation as a mass group is.

Darkness and shadows are used throughout the film to reflect the criminal underworld which is trying to be kept away from the general public. The darkness also acts as a blanket for activity to take place, as the ambiguity of scenes is often left up for the spectator to decide.

The use of segmented shots removes the identity of certain characters, once again showing the lack of importance in individuality, but the idea that anyone within that community could be involved.

Laura is passed around throughout the narrative as an object rather than a person. She resigns herself to the fact that there is no escape from her situation and limits her emotions to appear stronger to the other characters in the film; she does not want to show the effect they are having on her. She is passed around like the drugs that are being trafficked from one location to the next. Laura is merely the vessel from transportation.

The representation of America in the film is shown through aggressive, military like characters. The film appears to reaffirm the barrier between Mexican citizens and Americans, both physically and metaphorically.

Laura is at the centre of the ambush scene. The camera flows in a single shot around the criminal activity and violence which engulfs the corrupt criminal underworld. The shot starts and ends with Laura, she is at the centre of the action, but this could be anyone who has been unwillingly drawn into the chaos which surrounds her.

As Laura receives the pageant crown her emotions are too much to bare and her devastation over how she has got to the stage is shown through her tears which reflect her suffering throughout the film and foreshadows the events in the following scenes. Laura is then raped by one of the criminals, with the scene shot in a wide angle which detaches the spectator from the situation and through this makes the scene appear more realistic, reflecting the detachment Laura is trying to have from the situation she is in.

Laura is left in a barren landscape at the end of the film, as the police agree to let her go. Corruption between criminals and authority is central to the events which occur throughout the narrative as the spectator is never sure who they can trust, if anyone at all. Her new life starts in the grey, empty landscape which reflects the bleakness of her present and future.

Concepts of transnational cinema, Higbee and Hwee Lim: http://www.thedigitalsilkroute.com/images/references/transnational-film1.pd...

Miss Bala: Nightmare State - http://www.filmcomment.com/article/nightmare-state/print

Sin Nombre trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTSi0pKjC5g

Sin Nombre imdb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127715/

Official wesbite for Sin Nombre: http://www.focusfeatures.com/sin_nombre

Crossing borders with Sin Nombre: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-nombre8-2009mar08-story.html#pag...

Fukunaga discussing authenticity in Sin Nombre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYJOQEqokb0

Both Sin Nombre and Miss Bala reflect a loss of identity for Mexican citizens. How is this shown throughout both films?

Roger Ebert review of Sin Nombre: http://rogerebert-prod-1056988946.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/reviews/sin-n...