Press.
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Mexican director's intense thriller of immigrants pursued by a
xenophobic gunman as they try to cross the border into the United States is
opening just as the subject of immigration plays a leading role in the U.S.
presidential election. "Desierto," written and directed by Jonas
Cuaron and out in U.S. theaters on Friday, follows the high-stakes journey that
a group of Mexicans embark on to cross the border into the United States
illegally.
Some are hoping
to start a new life while others, such as Gael Garcia Bernal's Moises, are
hoping to reunite with family. As they traverse the stark and unbearably hot
desert wasteland dividing the two countries, a ruthless American vigilante,
played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, whittles down the group with the help of a
long-range rifle and a ferocious dog.
"I wanted
to tell a story that I felt very close to myself, which is the story both about
migration, but also a parable of where we're going to arrive as a society if we
keep promoting so much hatred towards migrants, towards foreigners,"
Cuaron told Reuters. "Desierto" is Mexico's official Oscar entry this
year. Cuaron, the son of Oscar-winning "Gravity" filmmaker Alfonso
Cuaron, said it was "wonderful that this film could be part of the
discussion in the United States at that level."
Hot U.S. topic
Debuting less
than a month before the November 8 U.S. presidential election,
"Desierto" has tapped into the heated debate and opposing stances on
immigration between the two presidential candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton
and Republican Donald Trump.
Clinton has
promised to propose broad legislation to overhaul the immigration system and
establish a process for undocumented workers to become citizens. In contrast,
Trump launched his presidential campaign with a vow to build a wall on the
U.S.-Mexico border and has said he would insist that the United States'
southern neighbor pay for it. He would also require people seeking legal status
to leave and reapply.
Morgan, whose
vigilante character in the film is motivated to kill by his unabashed hatred of
immigrants, said "everything that Trump said in his speech about
immigration was dead wrong." Garcia Bernal added: "It is very
unfortunate that this high level of hate discourse has been going on." "Migration
is as natural and as real as we're both speaking right now, you know. We have
to regulate it in a very comprehensive, benign and a very nurturing way,"
he said.