MANIFF Sunday: NONA

Will Stevenson | 5th March 2018

The closing night film of Manchester Film Festival 2018 was Michael Polish’s NONA. A film based around a girl (Sulem Calderon) who wants, desperately, to immigrate to America to join her mother. In her native Honduras she meets a charming boy, Honcho (Jesy McKinney) who aspires to help her in this quest.

The first hour or so of the film is reminiscent of Fernando Meirelles 2002 crime-drama City of God, with gorgeous cinematography portraying life in a poverty-stricken part of South America. From there though, the films plot doesn’t dive in to the gang-violence as Meirelles does, instead it meanders from destination to destination, taking its time to unfold as a character-drama and love story; luckily the chemistry between McKinney and Calderon is so magnetic that the minute plot doesn’t matter – the character development is fantastic.

A specific, incredibly powerful, moment where the screen goes entirely black for over ten seconds is the turning point in the narrative. Discussing the later half of the film without any oblique spoilers is an almost impossible task, but it draws out an even stronger performance from Calderon.

The film remains utterly mesmerising for the rest of it’s runtime, with the exception of two key sequences. Unfortunately, one of these two sequences is the final few seconds of the film, which is filled with such transparently expositional dialogue that is almost lets the rest of the script down.

Luckily, the performances are so strong that despite a slightly iffy and preachy final scene, NONA will stick in the memory as an incredibly strong drama with a powerful message.