First thing: just watch this trailer and tell me you don’t want to see this movie. You know you do!
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 an abandoned child, forcing her to give up her career. A kindhearted club owner saves her from a life of poverty and prostitution, but things get complicated when the baby’s father – Rodolfo, the murderous pimp – is freed from prison and seeks to reclaim his son. Best known for the award-winning María Candelaria (1944), 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. She dominates and illuminates the screen in every frame.
Victims of Sin was fully restored in 4K from the original 35mm nitrate camera negative, which had been damaged from mishandling over the decades, by Peter Conheim (Cinema Preservation Alliance/USA) and Viviana Garcia-Besné (Permanencia Voluntaria/Mexico). Permanencia Voluntaria and Cinema Preservation Alliance co-produced the preservation effort with further assistance from IMCINE and the Academy Film Archive, bringing VICTIMS OF SIN back to the screen with a clarity and depth not seen since its original release.