LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- If riding on top of a Mexican freight train while bandits lie in wait , or inviting real-life gang members to improvise street battles does n't sound like the wisest approach to making your first feature film , try telling Cary Fukunaga . `` Sin Nombre '' portrays one boy 's struggle to escape Mexico 's gang culture set against the backdrop of the trade in illegal immigrants . Because those are exactly the scrapes the 32-year-old writer-director got into during production of his highly-acclaimed debut `` Sin Nombre . '' Set in Mexico against the backdrop of the country 's ballooning people trafficking problem , Fukunaga 's social-political thriller shows one boy 's struggle to escape Mexican gang culture after meeting a Honduran immigrant girl . The half-Japanese half-Swedish director decided that it would be impossible to portray street gang culture or the treacherous immigrant experience without fully immersing himself in both . `` To tell a story of what it 's like to travel on top of freight trains , or the camaraderie of living in a gang , are all things I could imagine maybe , '' Fukunaga told CNN . `` But I would n't be able to get it right without meeting the people who actually experienced it , and experiencing some of that with them . '' After Fukunaga first conceived `` Sin Nombre '' ( which translates as `` Without a Name '' ) in 2005 he embarked on a mammoth research tour in order to fully understand what it is like to be both a desperate immigrant and a street gang member . He spent two weeks with immigrants at a train yard in Tapachula , Mexico , before risking his life illegally riding on the roof of a train traveling across the border state of Chiapas . `` People get shot , trains derail , assaults happen , '' said Fukunaga . `` I had to understand that if I fell off the train and lost a limb , I could just bleed to death out there , there 'd be no-one to come pick me up . '' The filmmaker , who is an American citizen , was taken aback by the camaraderie among the immigrants in spite of the danger and violence . `` Some of the bits of humor that would happen on the journey really surprised me , '' he told CNN . `` You could laugh minutes after someone had been shot . '' It is this 27-hour train ride , during which a there was a bandit attack , that forms the basis of a substantial portion of the action in `` Sin Nombre . '' Fukunaga also visited members of the notoriously violent Mara Salvatrucha street gangs in jail in Mexico . `` I spent about two years in two different prisons , and reduced a group of gang members down to a couple guys I could trust , '' he explained . Fukunaga courted them with with gifts in the hope they would aid his research . `` After bringing them grilled chickens and enough India ink and CD components so they could make tattoo guns , they felt like they could trust me enough to hook me up with one of their outside people . Then they knew I was n't just a cop . '' The end result is a starkly realistic portrayal of the Central American gangs that make their living trafficking people to the United States . The film 's action includes a dramatic shootout scene featuring real gang members as extras alongside actors . `` All the guns had blanks , '' Fukunaga said . `` I had a gun too , if I had to regulate the situation . '' Not that that made the scene entirely unproblematic : `` The guy who plays the leader in that scene is a gang member , '' said Fukunaga . `` Once we shot that scene he was gone . I do n't know where he went , and there was no way to track him down to come back in and record audio or anything . '' Nevertheless , Fukunaga maintains that the characters he chose to portray are inherently likeable people . `` I liked the gang members and the immigrants I met equally , and had equal respect for them '' Fukunaga said . `` Some of the kids in these gangs , they seem like they 're 28-years-old , but they 're actually only 19 . They just look old because of the things they 've experienced . '' `` Sin Nombre '' is executive produced by acclaimed Mexican actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna . It impressed judges at this year 's Sundance Film Festival so much they awarded it directing and cinematography awards . But even after such an ambitious and successful debut , Fukunaga is not ready to let up and his next project could n't be more different : a musical with Arcade Fire collaborator Owen Pallett . After all , he said , `` If you 're just going to do a paint-by-numbers film , then what 's the point ? ''
` ` Sin City '' opens a window on Mexico 's notorious Salvatrucha gangs . Cary Fukunaga 's psychological thriller set against backdrop of immigrant riots on Taiwan . Fukunaga visited gang members in jail and used an immigrant train for research . Film won editing and cinematography awards at 2009 Sundance Film Festival .