THE ABSENCE OF EDEN Trailer (2024) Zoe Saldana

THE ABSENCE OF EDEN Trailer (2024) Zoe Saldana

THE ABSENCE OF EDEN Trailer (2024) Zoe Saldana, Garrett Hedlund, Thriller
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Roadside

"Your crops, your children, your future. We make it all grow. And what do you do…?" Roadside Attractions has revealed an official trailer for an indie border drama titled The Absence of Eden, made by filmmaker Marco Perego. This premiered at a few festivals last year including the Newport Beach Film Festival and is now set for a US release in limited theaters this April. The Absence of Eden traces the sprawling romance of a man and a woman whose love for each other struggles to prevail amid the divisiveness of life on America’s southern border. The film explores the humanity of immigration and the fragility of life as an immigration agent unknowingly dooms a former lover and a woman struggles to escape her past. Zoe Saldana stars as a woman who flees across the border, and helps protect a young girl. The cast includes Garrett Hedlund, Adria Arjona, Tom Waits, and Chris Coy. As vitally important as it is to tell stories about what's really happening on the US-Mexico border, this doesn't seem like the kind of film that will change anyone's mind.

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Marco Perego's The Absence of Eden, direct from YouTube:

The Absence of Eden Poster

Marco Perego's film The Absence of Eden takes place at the border between the United States and Mexico – a hellish landscape inhabited by coyotes, armed officers, many desperate immigrants, and refugees. When Esmee (Zoe Saldaña), a young woman working as a private dancer in Mexico, is forced to commit a violent act of self-defense that results in the death of a cartel member, she must flee her homeland to find sanctuary in the United States. Guided by a ruthless Coyote and a group of undocumented immigrants, she befriends a young mother and her daughter along the way. Before crossing the border, the mother is taken from the group, and Esmee promises to protect her daughter and help them reunite in America, touching off an interlocking story about the people struggling to survive on America’s border with Mexico.

The Absence of Eden is directed by Italian indie filmmaker Marco Perego, making his feature directorial debut with this film after producing a few other projects previously. The screenplay is also written by Marco Perego along with Rick Rapoza. It's produced by Karl Herrmann, Robert Kravis, Alexandra Milchan, Marco Perego, Zoe Saldana, Julie Yorn, and Rick Yorn. This initially premiered at the 2023 Taormina Film Fest last year, and at the 2023 Newport Beach Film Festival. Roadside Attractions will debut Perego's The Absence of Eden in select US theaters starting April 12th, 2024 coming up this spring. Anyone interested in this film?

Two parallel but inevitably intersecting stories make up Italian-born director Marco Perego‘s debut feature “The Absence of Eden,” a strikingly shot and superbly acted immigration drama. But for all its commendable on-screen elements, it’s the screenplay that Perego co-wrote with Rick Rapoza that falls short, traversing overly familiar and rather sordid tropes related to a divisive political issue. While the actors — led by Zoe Saldaña, who is also married to the director — give powerful portrayals that challenge the country’s anti-immigrant climate, but there’s little in the way of thematic novelty here.

New ICE Agent Shipp (Garrett Hedlund), whose estranged father often leaves voice messages he never hears, has just moved to an unnamed border town. Though Shipp’s decision to join this line of work doesn’t stem from a strong ideological stance, his partner and friend Dobbins (Chris Coy) tries to instill in him a dehumanizing “us against them” mentality. As he settles into the dangers and moral conundrums of the job, it’s his romance with Yadira (Adria Arjona), a single mother of Mexican descent, that complicates matters.

On the other side of the fence, Esmeralda (Saldaña), an exotic dancer forced to flee her hometown after a violent encounter with a client, embarks on the dangerous desert-crossing journey into the United States. Along the way, she becomes the de facto guardian for a young girl left alone. Once they arrive, Esmeralda agrees to take on an illicit job the smugglers offer her in order to preserve her safety and that of the child. In a mostly Spanish-language role, Saldaña convincingly communicates the perpetual distress of the experience, her facial expressions bearing a muted anguish. It’s a welcome display of vulnerability from a star best known for big-budget Hollywood outings.

Perego demonstrates a strong cinematic voice through the film’s dreamlike atmosphere, evoking the characters’ sentiments instead of presenting them didactically. This ethereal, not-of-this-world mood is in major part the work of Argentine cinematographer Javier Julia (“Argentina, 1985”). With sumptuous interplay of composition, light, and delicate camera movement, Julia takes his time introducing us to new environments. While “Absence of Eden” lacks narrative originality, it often dazzles visually.

Within this thoughtfully conceived milieu, Hedlund’s sorrowful stoicism commands attention. Shipp rarely speaks, and his guarded demeanor only breaks in the presence of Yadira. He hasn’t yet been corrupted by the agency’s toxic culture, so the film doesn’t need to humanize him, yet it does map his transition into becoming more like Dobbins. Perego has an affinity for moments showing his characters at their breaking point. A hard-to-stomach scene sees Saldaña’s Esmeralda screaming in desperation without making a sound — a prisoner trapped in a dreadful no-win arrangement. Another captures Yadira in tears, pleading to Shipp when her true identity is revealed. The actors’ performances in such moments elevate the piece.

From the supporting players who aren’t first-language Spanish speakers, some dialogue sounds stilted in comparison to Saldaña and Arjona’s more natural fluidity. Given how many of these secondary characters are meant to be native speakers, this is a misstep that goes against the movie’s presumed desire for authenticity. That may go unnoticed by most American viewers, but the presence of drugs, human trafficking, and plenty of stereotypical Latino bad hombres will be recognizable to them, based on other projects set in this region.

Still, Perego lands other meaningful points about the rampant xenophobia that fuels the immigration discourse. A scene halfway through, as Shipp’s relationship with Yadira deepens, shows Dobbins’ biases as standard for those in his department. When Dobbins hears Yadira speak Spanish at a Mexican restaurant, he instinctively questions where she was born, claiming it’s for the sake of getting to know her. Near the end of this downhearted saga, Esmeralda gives a speech, explanatory despite its poetic language, about the mistreatment of her people in this country — her fury even more palpable in her delivery than in the words themselves. By the time this conclusion arrives, the film’s threads don’t feel fully processed. But it’s highlights like this that give “The Absence of Eden” enough panache to serve as a strong calling card for Perego.

Immigration has often been a topic that sparks strong emotions around the globe, and it is an especially hot topic this election season, particularly when you have a U.S. presidential candidate characterizing undocumented immigrants not as “human” but rather as “animals” and using phrases such as “they are poisoning the blood of our country” at campaign rallies. Now seems to be a perfect time for a powerful new film, The Absence of Eden, to perhaps help lower the temperature and show the human side of those trying to cross the border into a new and hopefully better life.

None other than Martin Scorsese has lent his name to this film by signing on as an executive producer, and it represents the first feature for artist and producer Marco Perego who also happens to be the husband of the film’s star Zoe Saldaña. Perego says it was all inspired by a sculpture he did in 2017. For that one he filled 714 shoes with concrete to represent children fleeing from Syria to Italy.

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The Absence of Eden is set at the U.S.-Mexico border and actually deals with an undocumented immigrant named Esmee (Saldaña), working as a private dancer who finds herself in deep trouble after killing a drug cartel member in the club where she works and who had tried to rape her. This leads to her getting involved with a shady coyote providing travel across the border for immigrants unable to flee any other way. When she meets a mother travelling with her daughter things get worse as their caravan is stopped and the daughter, Alma (Maeve Garay), is separated from her mother who pleads with Esmee to take care of her as the desperate woman is carted away by cartel members. Esmee promises she will make sure they are reunited in America.

A parallel story deals with a morally conflicted ICE agent, Shipp (Garrett Hedlund), who clearly has issues with the demands of his job and is also, as it turns out, romantically involved with Yadira (Adria Arjona), who is living a life near the border but perhaps hiding a secret of her own. Their relationship plays out as he goes about a daily life that exposes the inhumanity involved, even as his partner, Dobbins (Chris Coy), has another view of things as he looks at these people with far less compassion.

Perego, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Rapoza, structures the story by going back and forth between these two characters and the shadow of the cartel hanging over everything in this explosive scenario, especially when Esmee herself is separated from Alma, helpless to protect her even as her own life continues to be in danger.

While the film packs plenty of action and moves swiftly, the emphasis here is on humanity, and showing that these people caught up in harrowing circumstances are people just like us; Perego is clearly dedicated to never letting the focus change from that. He is helped greatly by a terrific cast including Saldaña who brings grace and grit to Esmee. Also impressive is Arjona, who skillfully plays the contradictions of a character who slowly reveals herself. Hedlund, morose for much of the film, is also very fine as a man uncomfortable with his job and himself.

The film is in fact dedicated to Saldaña’s late maternal grandmother, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in the 1960s.

Producers are Julie Yorn, Perego, Robert Kravis, Karl Herrmann and Alexandra Milchan. Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment have teamed up on the release.

Title: The Absence of Eden
Distributor: Roadside Attractions/Vertical Entertainment
Release date: April 12, 2024
Director: Marco Perego
Screenwriters: Marco Perego and Rick Rapoza
Cast: Zoe Saldaña, Garrett Hedlund, Adria Arjona, Chris Coy, Sophia Hammons, Noah Ziggy James, Maeve Garay
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 37 min

The Absence of Eden follows Zoe Saldaña's character on the run, showcasing themes of humanity and survival in a thrilling storyline.
Set on the US-Mexico border, the movie explores the harsh reality faced by undocumented immigrants and refugees, offering a poignant commentary.
With a talented team behind it, including Zoe Saldaña and Garrett Hedlund, The Absence of Eden promises an intense and emotional cinematic experience.
Zoe Saldaña is on the run in the new trailer of the upcoming feature The Absence of Eden. The movie marks the directorial debut of the actor’s husband Marco Perego, and revolves around themes of humanity and survival. The clip sees her as a private dancer who accidentally kills a mob boss and then goes on a run to protect herself and joins a group of undocumented immigrants going to America. The feature looks very thrilling and is unafraid to pull its punches and Saldaña seems to carry the movie high on emotions like a bonafide star.

The Absence of Eden is set in the backdrop of the border between the United States and Mexico. It’s a hellish landscape inhabited by coyotes, armed officers, desperate immigrants, and refugees, all alike. The movie follows a young woman, Esmee (Saldaña), working as a private dancer in Mexico, when she is forced to commit a violent act of self-defense, she has no option left but to run to America for safety. On this journey, guided by a ruthless Coyote, she befriends a young mother and her daughter, but things take a turn when before crossing the border, the mother is taken from the group, and Esmee promises to protect her daughter and help them reunite again in America.

The Team Behind ‘The Absence of Eden’

The feature is billed as an “interlocking story about people struggling to survive on America’s border with Mexico,” which makes a good commentary on the geopolitics of the region. Perego, who also produces, co-wrote the feature with scribe Rick Rapoza. The themes of the movie look quite intense as it takes a good look at humanity and survival instinct through the lens of undocumented immigrants.

Saldaña is coming fresh off the success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, which marked the end of the trilogy of MCU’s favorite band of misfits. She recently appeared in films like James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water, which blew away the audience again as well as the TV series Special Ops: Lioness, a Taylor Sheridan thriller, that was well-loved by fans and critics, alike. She’s supported in the cast by Garrett Hedlund, whose credits include Unbroken, Mudbound, Triple Frontier, The Marsh King's Daughter and more. The feature is executive produced by Martin Scorsese while Saldaña, Karl Herrmann, Robert Kravis, Alexandra Milchan, Perego, Julie Yorn, and Rick Yorn serves as producers.

The Absence of Eden will premiere this April. You can check out the new trailer above.