Dangerous crossing
Zoe Saldana puts face on illegal immigration in ‘Absence of Eden’
As a couple Zoe Saldaña and Marco Perego have given years to make “The Absence of Eden,” a heart-rending look at immigration from both sides of the Mexican border — the illegal immigrants crossing and the ICE law enforcement officers who arrest and return them.
Saldaña’s Esmee is forced to flee Mexico. In a group led by a “coyote’ she becomes a guardian for a little girl. Perego, a firsttime writer-director, vividly illustrates the dangers of illegal entry into the US, especially for women.
In Arizona Garrett Hedlund’s
ICE officer Shipp begins a relationship with an immigrant, one that becomes murderously complicated.
While a subject very much in the news, can it reverberate with movie audiences?
“It’s a topic that’s very complex, very dense,” Saldaña, 45, acknowledged in a Zoom interview with Perego. “Everybody has a personal experience with immigration. Also, a very defined opinion.
“I didn’t want to live in the politics of it. I just wanted to try to understand a day in the life of a person who is in an environment that is not safe or working for them. They decide to embark on a journey that may very well cost them their lives. But they still do it.
“I’m trying to understand why — and just provide some compassion and understanding.”
Esmee is, “A decent person. If she finds that somebody is thirsty and she has extra water, she’ll give them water. If somebody is offering her a job and it doesn’t feel legal, she doesn’t want to do it. She has a real desire to work and earn a decent living. She is willing to step in for others that don’t have a voice for themselves.
“She should be warranted safe harbor in a new country that she believes will provide better resources for her. Because she would be nothing but an asset.
“So I just wanted to focus there and live in that space.”
Deadly realities with traffickers and crooked officials make for intense drama. Saldaña and Perego have three children, a reality many immigrants share on their journeys. That’s reflected in their film.
“There’s so many different ways that we could have told the story,” Saldaña said. “Marco really had a very defined direction and guided us all so swiftly and so gracefully. We all just tried to do what he wanted us to do.”
As to what people might take away from “Absence,” “To not forget,” she said, “it’s human beings we’re talking about. Just decent people trying for a better life.”
“The Absence of Eden” opens April 12