Hailed as "the first epic" of the independent American cinema, the film focuses on two young Mayan Indians -- sister Rosa (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) and brother Enrique (David Villalpando) -- whose lives are shattered by the Guatemalan civil war. As one says to the other, "The past is gone forever ... you're my whole family now." They flee to Mexico with the ultimate goal of crossing into the United States -- "El Norte" -- where they hope for a new, secure life.

The film aspired to put a face on the "invisible people," the shadow population of undocumented aliens that had become a key, though rarely acknowledged, element of the American economy -- and if anything, the movie's relevance has grown more urgent over the ensuing quarter-century.

In Spanish with English subtitles.