By: Nikoleta Morales

On Dec. 5, the AMC Theater in Cicero showed for the first and only time Kuno Becker’s directorial debut movie “Panic 5 Bravo.” The movie is an action-thriller film about American paramedics that become trapped on the Mexican side of the border and terrorized by a violent psychopath. The idea for the movie was inspired by a real incident when Becker was in Mexico shooting a documentary in an ambulance with the Red Cross when he encountered a tragic situation of a badly injured man on the Mexican border and the code was 5 Bravo. “Seeing that changed something in me,” said Becker.

The biggest challenge that the director had was to shoot the movie with a low budget and in just a few weeks. “The good thing is that it teaches you to be creative. The bad thing is you don’t have enough time,” said Becker. “When you get the finances you have to shoot it. It is very different in the independent world. You have to make the best of everything you got.”

Becker is also happy that he had the right team behind him to pull the movie in such a short time. “People have to have faith in you. I am happy to have the cast that I did. They believed in me and that makes me very grateful,” said Becker. But Becker isn’t only trying to show his talent as a director with this movie. He also is trying to send a message and make a change. “I want to end the violence that is going on in Mexico. I want to do that by trying to create characters that people will remember. That is challenging,” said Becker.

The movie has been played in six festivals so far and it has been received quite well by the audiences. “The movie was successful and people were entertained,” said Becker whose goal is to show this movie to as many people as possible. “It was a lot of fun. This was the most fun I had in my life,” said Becker about directing the movie and also playing one of the characters in it, Alex. “I thought I will be able to show I can do something new.”