From writer/director Jonás Cuarón, Desierto is a terrifying suspense-thriller packed with heart-pounding tension, as Sam (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), an unrelenting and deranged killer, points his rifle at a group of unarmed men and women at the U.S.-Mexican border. What started as a hopeful journey to seek a better life quickly becomes a nightmare for Moises (Gael García Bernal) as he fights for survival.

During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, filmmaker Jonás Cuarón talked about how this film came about, the rhetoric and hatred that goes against what this country is supposed to be about, his editing process, the coincidental timing of its release during this election year, the feedback he got from his father (Alfonso Cuarón) and uncle (Carlos Cuarón), and wanting to create an experience for the audience. He also talked about developing on Z, his own take on the Zorro mythology with Gael García Bernal in the lead role, and how he hopes to collaborate with his father again soon.

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Image via STX Entertainment

Collider: It seems like there would be no shortage of first-hand stories about immigration and the migrant journey. How did hearing the stories about what other people have gone through lead to this film, for you?

JONAS CUARON: I’ve lived in the U.S. now for over 16 years. About 10 years ago, I was traveling through Arizona with my brother, and that’s when all of the anti-immigration laws were starting to happen and there was really strong rhetoric and hatred towards Mexicans and migrants. When I came here, I was 15 and one of the things I admired was the cultural diversity. But this rhetoric and hatred goes against what’s great about this country, so I decided I wanted to make a movie that spoke about it. For a couple of years, I just didn’t know the best approach for this story. I didn’t know the best way to tell this story. That’s when I thought about ‘70s genre films and how, in the ‘70s, all the filmmakers did movies with a very important social and political message, but hid that under the disguise of genre, whether it was an action movie or a horror movie. That was the turning point for the project. 

You wrote this film long before Gravity happened, and this script even inspired Gravity. How do you feel about the fact that Desierto led to that film, but we’re only getting to see this film now?

CUARON: I wrote the first draft about eight years ago and I showed it to my dad (Alfonso Cuarón) to see if he could give me any advice or notes on the script, but the only thing he told me when he read the script was, “I really like this concept. I’d like to do something like that.” That’s when he adapted the concept to space and Gravity happened. Honestly, that’s a lot of why I ended up taking so long to do this film. In the interim, I started working on Gravity, and that took four or five years of my life, but in hindsight, I’m really grateful to have worked on Gravity because I learned a lot from working with my dad, particularly how to maintain the tension and make sure the audience is going to stay glued to their seats.

You gave your father the script to read, but did you also show him a cut of the film, once you had shot it, to get his feedback on it?

CUARON: Yeah, of course! Both my dad and my uncle Carlos, who my dad wrote Y Tu Mamá También with, are both my teachers, in a way, so whether they’re producers or not on the project, I always ask them for advice, every step of the way.

What was your editing process for this like? Did you have to cut many scenes, or did you have a pretty good idea of what you wanted, before you shot?

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Image via STX Entertainment

CUARON: With projects like Gravity and Desierto, that depend purely on the action and tension that arises from all of this build-up and you don’t have any dialogue, the script is really important to mark down. The same tension you feel when you’re watching the movie was already there, on the page. In that sense, I always had a clear idea of the rhythm that the movie needed to have, and the drive and the important beats. And then, to create that in the editing room, I knew was going to be a big challenge. I had to really make sure that anything inside of the scene kept the tension going. That’s why, during shooting, it was important to have a lot of coverage. I knew that coverage was going to be needed, in the editing room, to create that tension.

In the time that it took you to release the film, since writing that first draft, because it was so many years, did you ever come close to giving up or thinking that it would never get made, or were you always determined to make this film, no matter how many years down the line that ended up being?

CUARON: For me, it was always a very important story that I wanted to tell, both as a cinematic experiment and also because the themes are very important to me. Yeah, there were many points where it seemed like the project was not going to happen, but it’s such a painful process that I think it’s important that the story is important to you, as a filmmaker. That way, you won’t give up, in the process.

It’s also unbelievable timing that this film is out right now, with everything being talked about in this presidential election. Did you intentionally hold the film to release it now, or are you just really lucky with the timing because this is so topical right now?

CUARON: I have to blame it more on me being incredibly slow. It took so long that Gael [García Bernal] said, “You’re taking so long that the subject matter is not going to be relevant anymore.” Honestly, I wish it wasn’t. By the time the movie came out, I wish all of this rhetoric and hatred wasn’t going around. But a month before the movie opened in Toronto, my wife showed me this speech where Donald Trump announced that he was running, and he did it saying incredibly racist things that were filled with hatred. That’s when I realized that not only was the subject matter still relevant, but it was more relevant than ever. 

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Image via STX Entertainment

How do you tell a story like this without making it too preachy? Is it just about being honest with the story that you’re telling and allowing it to reflect your passion about the subject?

CUARON: That’s something that I admire about genre and why it was important to tell this story through genre. Genre connects with the audience in a visceral way. You connect to the story through your gut, instead of through your intellect. I wanted to tell this story through that narrative device. We’ve seen many, many stories that try to rationalize or preach, or it becomes a debate on the subject matter. But to me, it was important not to have this be a debate. I just wanted to create an experience for the audience that gave them a visceral connection. Sometimes we over-rationalize things, but some things are not debatable. We shot scenes with Jeffrey [Dean Morgan], where he explained the backstory of his character and we justified it in a psycho-analytical way, but those scenes didn’t go with the drive of the movie. It minimized the action, which should speak for itself. And anyways, there is no justification for going around shooting people.

Gael García Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are both so great in this, but the other memorable cast member you have is the dog. As a filmmaker, what was it like to have a dog play such a crucial role in the story?

CUARON: It’s funny, when I showed the early drafts to both my dad and my uncle, the main note they kept giving me was, “Get rid of the dog! It’s your first movie. Don’t ever work with animals.” But for me, it was important to keep the dog. I knew it was going to be one of the main ways to keep the tension because it’s a very terrifying character. But also, it was important that Sam had a human side. He’s completely alone in the desert, so his dog was the only way I could show his human connection. It’s the only connection he has, throughout the movie, so it was a very important character. I spent three years looking for dogs, everywhere. I ended up finding this trainer that doesn’t train dogs for cinema. He trains them for actual security purposes, so they’re real attack dogs. Everything you see them do in the movie was real. They’re incredibly agile and incredibly scary. We started with two of those dogs, one for the running scenes and one for the bites. But then, for the first scene that Jeffrey filmed with the dog, Jeffrey started screaming and the dog was not used to working with actors, so it got scared and it tried to bite Jeffrey. That’s when we decided to bring a third dog in, which was just a normal, calm dog.

Is there a message that you hope people take from seeing this film, or is it more about raising questions and sparking conversations among people?

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CUARON: To me, Desierto is just my own personal view. I wanted to create an experience for the audience, and then let the audience have their own reflection. Desierto is a parable for where we can end up, as a society, if we keep promoting so much hatred. With so much hatred being promoted, sooner or later, someone is going to pull the trigger, like Sam does.

You’re also currently working on a futuristic Zorro movie, called Z. Is that the next film you’re hoping to make?

CUARON: When we opened Desierto in Toronto last year, I was approached and invited to write a project that was inspired by the character of Zorro. I thought it was a really interesting project for two main reasons. One is that, like Desierto, I like the idea of making genre movies, but that hide a social subject matter. Obviously, the character of Zorro is a great jumping point to create an engaging adventure movie, but that touches on important and relevant social issues. The other thing that interested me in the project is that, when the producers approached me, they had Gael [García Bernal] in mind for the leading role. To me, any excuse to work with Gael again is a great excuse.

What made you want to take the Zorro story and set it in the future?

CUARON: Look, I’ve only started writing the project, so I’m not for sure how it’s going to shape up. But as I said, I think it’s a great jumping point to make a really entertaining movie, but also a movie that touches on important issues.

Have you also written anything with your father, Alfonso Cuarón, or are you going to be writing anything with him soon?

CUARON: Right now, I’ve been so busy with Desierto that we haven’t thought about it. But, I would love to work with him again. To me, Gravity was one of the biggest learning experiences in my life. I would definitely love to repeat that collaboration.

Desierto is now playing in theaters.