Rarely screened in the United States and long due for rediscovery, Victims of Sin is famed Mexican director Emilio Fernández’s unique blend of film noir, melodrama, and musical. Acting- dancing sensation Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a cabaret performer who adopts the abandoned child of Rosa (Margarita Ceballos) and Rodolfo (Rodolfo Acosta), Violeta’s murderous pimp. Motherhood forces Violeta to give up her career, but the kindhearted club owner Santiago (Tito Junco) saves her from a life of poverty and prostitution—until Rodolfo, freed from prison, seeks to reclaim his son. Best known for the award-winning María Candelaria (1944) and The Pearl (1947), Fernández infuses Victims with impassioned songs and performances by Sevilla, an icon of Mexican cinema and a purveyor of African, Caribbean, and Cuban dance styles.

“Victims of Sin is gorgeously shot by the great Gabriel Figueroa, who captures murky neon-lit alleys, the luminous shimmer of bottles behind a bar, the dark rolling smoke of trains passing at twilight. The look is classically noir, but the film is in a kind of emotional 3D.” Imogen Sara Smith, The Chiseler

“Victims of Sin is 300 pounds of brutality and emotion packed into a magnificent 90-minute bag, all built around a spectacular performance by Ninón Sevilla.” sakana1, letterboxd

“the kind of gritty, at-times-fun, melodramatic wallop to the senses I live for. Part of the niche genre where Mexican filmmaking adapted and absorbed the film noir tendencies, this film presents nearly ten different musical numbers interspersed between a swift but endearing gangster plot line that revolves around the existence of a baby.” Ziglet_mir, letterboxd