Gael Garcia Bernal will star in an upcoming immigration themed film called "Desierto." The film will be directed by young, up-and-coming director Jonás Cuarón, who is the son of the well established filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón.
The film was written by Cuarón along with screenwriter Mateo Garcia. It will be the young filmmaker's return to directing after six years in which he has focused on other projects.
Production for the film is scheduled to begin in October in Baja California.
According to Variety, the film will focus on the life of a pair of illegal immigrants who cross the border into the United States. On their journey across the border they will not only encounter the typical hardships immigrants must go through but they will have to face an alcoholic U.S. citizen who believes it is his personal duty to protect the border.
While the two immigrants fight for their own lives, they learn to help those who they meet on their way and in the process become great friends as well.
"Desierto," which will be independently produced, will have Cuarón, Alex Garcia and Luke Akoskin as executive producers.
Gael Garcia Bernal is currently shooting Jon Stewart's "Rosewater," where he plays a journalist who is imprisoned by the Iranian regime while on assignment. Most recently, he starred in the drama "No" about a publicist during the 1988 plebiscite in Chile when Chileans voted on whether or not dictator Augusto Pinochet sould stay in government for eight more years.
Jonás Cuarón made his directorial debut in 2007 with "Año Uña," a film comprised in its totality just of still images. The story focused on a teenage boy who falls in love with an American woman much older than him.
Cuarón also co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming science fiction film "Gravity" alongside his father. The movie stars George Clooney, Sandra Bullock and is scheduled to be released in October.