Absence of Eden | Zoe Saldaña, Garrett Hedlund, Adria Arjona

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Zoe Saldaña, Garrett Hedlund & Adria Arjona Thriller ‘The Absence Of Eden’ Sets Taormina World Premiere

Italian artist Marco Perego’s debut feature The Absence of Eden has set a picturesque world premiere at the upcoming edition of Italy’s 69th Taormina Film Festival, running from June 23 to July 1.

The festival will unveil the film in a screening at its landmark Ancient Greek amphitheatre with co-stars with Zoe Saldaña, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona in attendance.

Hedlund plays an ICE Agent struggling with the moral dilemmas of his job who unites with an undocumented woman fighting to escape a ruthless cartel, played by Guardians of the Galaxy star and Perego’s wife Saldaña, to save the life of an innocent girl.

Perego, who co-wrote the original screenplay with Rick Rapoza, previously produced the short film Me + Her and also directed the short film Burn To Shine, alongside his career as an artist.

“I am so excited to be screening The Absence of Eden in the Teatro Antico,” said Barrett Wissman, who is pulling together his inaugural edition of the festival in his new role of Executive and Co-Artistic Director.

“Marco Perego’s direction is a work of beauty and the performances by the trio of actors Zoe Saldaña, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona are without exception wonderful.”

The film is produced by Academy Award-nominated producer Julie Yorn and Perego, along with Robert Kravis and Karl Herrmann under their banner of Pioneer Pictures, and Academy Award-nominated producer Alexandra Milchan.

Academy Award-winning director and producer Martin Scorsese, and Rick Yorn serve as executive producers, alongside Zoe Saldaña’s Cinestar Pictures, Ingenious Media, Ashland Hill, and Sycuan Tribal.

The Exchange is handling international sales rights; CAA Media Finance is handling US rights.

Other highlights of this year’s edition of Taormina include the Italian premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny; the world premiere of Conor Allyn’s In The Fire, starring Amber Heard, Eduardo Noriega, and Lorenzo McGovern Zaini, and a gala evening entitled “The Influential Shorts” curated by actress and influencer Bella Thorne.

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Zoe Saldana Talks Playing an Illegal Immigrant in Marco Perego’s Border Thriller ‘Absence of Eden’

When Variety talks to Zoe Saldana and her husband, the artist and film director, Marco Perego, they’ve only just arrived at the Taormina Film Festival, and are in the process of unpacking. Room service arrives and Zoe apologizes about having to tuck into the salad straightaway. They’re here attending the world premiere of Perego’s debut film as a director, “The Absence of Eden,” a drama that takes place in the murky world of the U.S.’s southern border, a hellish landscape inhabited by Coyotes, ICE officers, desperate immigrants and refugees.

It’s a universe away from the Pandora of the “Avatar” pictures or the science fiction blockbusters “Star Trek” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” Saldana is more usually associated with. “When I was picked for those films, I had no idea they were going to become franchises. I thought it was going to be a one and done kind of thing. I hold all of those films responsible for any kind of global notoriety I may have. However, it’s time consuming. Between ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Guardians’ and ‘Avatar,’ I had solid work for over 10 years. As I became an asset that had a certain value in this industry, I could turn that to films like this.”

For Perego, the film represents a continuation of his work as an artist, which he began in 2016 with a series of sculptures of children’s shoes filled with concrete to represent children fleeing from Syria to Italy. “I saw a universal question about humanity. After the sculpture, I wanted to complete the conversation about humanity and that’s why I wrote this film.”

“My family’s from the Caribbean,” Saldana tells Variety. “So our wave of immigration was from the east side of the States, from the Atlantic. It was a different experience. My grandmother immigrated for political purposes. Right after the assassination of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, a lot more visas were granted to Dominicans. She arrived in ‘61. The conversation of immigration has always been a universal conversation in my life.”

Although the film began as part of an art project, the politics of the situation is inescapable. Saldana says, “I think invisible lines create a lot of judgement and division between us as a human race. And it pains me. I’m a proud Latina, I’m proud Afro-Caribbean. And it pains me to know my community is judged much more harshly than other communities, when in reality, Latinos compose a great ****ing portion of the American economy. And they’re, and you were over-exceeding, in so many economic regions, like we’re, you know, 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.”

The film is bold, both visually and in terms of the direction of its narrative. It offers some hope and the possibility of growth but Perego does not shy away from the harsh realities he discovered in his two years of research across the border with the help of cross-border activist and founder of This Is About Humanity, Elsa Collins. At the same time it was important for him to maintain his perspective as an artist. “Originally I was researching this for a sculpture. I was thinking of the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and no God. But then it became this movie and although I don’t like to explain art, there’s the palette in there: the red, white and blue of the American flag. There are the images in the film where the immigrants sit down like a Goya painting and I did that so that there was a beauty in there, a humanity.”

As a debut filmmaker Perego started by watching an online masterclass by Martin Scorsese and by the end of the production, Scorsese was on board as an executive producer. “Martin and [Scorsese’s film editor] Thelma Schoonmaker gave me notes, and now I pinch myself when I see his name on my movie.” For Saldana, as well as the humanitarian message, there was also the opportunity to stretch her acting skills in different directions. “Instead of me being overlooked as “oh, she just does action movies. And she’s green and she’s blue.” I wanted to know what it was like to keep pushing, because before I walk away, and I just become a soccer mom, which I’m gonna gladly accept, I want to see if I have it in me to be in these kinds of films.”

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Taormina: Zoe Saldana, Marco Perego & Their Producers On Why The Couple’s First Screen Duet ‘The Absence Of Eden’ Is Such A Gut Punch

While Zoe Saldana has starred in recent blockbusters Avatar: The Way Of Water, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and makes her TV series debut this month in the Taylor Sheridan created series Special Ops: Lioness, nothing is closer to her heart than The Absence of Eden, which marks the feature directing debut of her renowned artist husband Marco Perego. While illegal immigrants are used as political cannon fodder in the polarized politics of the US and abroad, the script by Perego and Rick Rapoza puts a face on these people, and focuses on the harrowing experiences of the outsiders who pay and trust ‘coyotes’ to transport them across the boarder. They hope to achieve the promise of a new life but there is every chance — especially for women and children — that they will end up dead or enslaved in human trafficking and drug operations. Saldana stars as one who takes that chance; Garrett Hedlund plays a border patrol officer who falls hard for a local (Adria Arjona) whose secret could tear them apart. Visiting the Deadline Studio before their world premiere at the ancient Teatro Antico amphitheater to close out the 69th Taormina Film Festival, Perego, Saldana, her Cinestar partner Cisely Saldana, and Pioneer Pictures partners Robert Kravis and Karl Hermann discuss the challenge of putting together a dark but meaningful first directing outing for Perego.