Zoe Saldaña aims to challenge the misconceptions surrounding immigration.
Attending the 69th Taormina Film Festival in Italy, Saldaña spoke to Deadline on Sunday about starring in the upcoming film “The Absence of Eden,” and its themes of immigration. The political thriller marks her husband Marco Perego’s feature directorial debut.
“Put a news network on and you’ll hear a conversation, you’ll hear a headline having to do with immigration,” she said during a panel with her husband and the film’s producers. “I think that the topic of immigration is a very multi-layered topic. It’s very complex, and it’s not right or wrong, good or bad, left or right. It’s a human problem.”
“The Absence of Eden” takes place on the U.S. southern border, in which Saldaña portrays an undocumented immigrant in the film. The film follows the moral dilemmas of an agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who joins forces with an undocumented woman to save the life of an innocent girl, according to the movie’s IMDb description.
In a separate interview with Variety published Sunday, Saldaña said that although the film began as part of an art project, the politics it touches on are inevitable.
“I think visible lines create a lot of judgment and division between us as a human race. And it pains me. I’m a proud Latina: I’m proud Afro-Caribbean,” Saldaña told Variety. “And it pains me to know my community is judged much more harshly than other communities, when in reality, Latinos compose a great…portion of the American economy.”
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” actress added that Latinos are “over-exceeding in so many economic regions” and “our children are enlisting into the military quicker than any other community. We are buying our own homes. We’re borrowing from banks, starting our own businesses and enrolling in school at a much higher rate than so many communities in America, and yet the narrative of us in the news and media is negative.”
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The “Avatar” actress also said the “conversation of immigration has always been a universal conversation in my life.”
Her grandmother immigrated to the U.S. for political purposes, she said, because “right after the assassination of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, a lot more visas were granted to Dominicans.”
“Father of the Bride” star Adria Arjona and “Tulsa King” actor Garrett Hedlund also star in “The Abscence of Eden.”
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