“Under the Same Moon” doesn’t seem like the kind of movie to spark a bidding war at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s an indie directed by a feature film newbie. It’s in Spanish with English subtitles. It has only one big American star, a brief turn by America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty.”
But several studios went after “Moon,” which touches on the hot-button topic of illegal immigration, and Fox Searchlight and the Weinstein Co. purchased the film for $5 million.
“Seriously, they were circling with the car around the condo, and storming in and opening doors and spying, to listen to what’s going on,” says director Patricia Riggen about the fight for her film.
Sweet-natured but tough-minded, “Under the Same Moon” arrives in theaters at a time when politicians, pundits and the public are engaging in verbal slugfests over immigration. “Moon” brings that large issue down to a more personal level.
The film follows a 9-year-old Mexican boy as he undertakes an improbable odyssey across the border to attempt a reunion with his single mother, who left him with relatives in Mexico to work illegally in L.A. as a housekeeper. She sends $300 home every month, and every Sunday at 10 a.m., she calls him from a pay phone on an East L.A. corner.
Another bleak immigration film? No, though Riggen did have to assure some actors of that when she was casting the movie. Referring to the iconic, standard-setting “El Norte” of 1983 — in which the Guatemalan characters suffer miserable circumstances — Riggen says, “We are ready for the opposite of ‘El Norte’ right now. This is that.”
By which she means something warmer and, yes, a little sappier, if still anguished at times. “Simple, lighthearted, heartwarming” is how Riggen describes her film.
“It tries to be meaningful, but it is full of light, not of darkness,” she says. “Which is something that I may be criticized for, you know, because immigration is a complex subject matter, and some people are going to want to see the complexity and the terrible situation.
“OK, fine. But you know, this is a movie, and it’s not a political essay, and I am like this: I like to show the good nature of people and the good side of things. I think we are ready to see the other side of the coin, the human side.”
Both Riggen and screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos, head writer on Nickelodeon’s “Go, Diego! Go!,” thought the story touched universal emotional issues while set in a border-crossing context. At the time, three years ago, immigration wasn’t the hot topic it is today.
Villalobos realized that setting the story against the background of illegal immigration would allow her to “introduce the public to all of these people that are working in this country and see them as human beings instead of an issue.”
“What I saw immediately was the love story,” Riggen says. “The love story between a mother and a child.”
The film portrays a week in the life of the boy, Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), and his mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo). Riggen weaves scenes of Carlitos in Mexico, and his adventures on the road, with Rosario’s struggles in L.A. A gruff older migrant, Enrique (Eugenio Derbez), reluctantly takes the boy under his wing.
“Moon” doesn’t shy from depicting the occasionally brutal obstacles that many poor, desperate Mexicans face in coming to look for work in the U.S.: dangerous river crossings, police raids and so on. The premise is not as improbable as it may seem; in 2005, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 115,000 unaccompanied minors.
Riggen worked hard to get right the details about daily life as an illegal immigrant, highlighting the existential dilemma of immigrants in Rosario’s position: The act of leaving her boy behind to make his life better may have the opposite consequence. Carlitos begins to question his mother’s love; Rosario questions whether the sacrifice is worth it.
“I say I am not political because I am not trying to convince people of any particular idea,” Riggen says. “I am just trying to be very true to these characters, and to their dilemmas.”
Part of the truth lies in the cultural touchstones of undocumented life that she puts in the film. Hitchhiking, Carlitos and Enrique hop in a van filled with guys with guitars and accordions: It’s Los Tigres, on tour. Riggen wanted the band in the film because it is so hugely popular with Latino immigrants and because its main subject is immigrant life.
Similarly, Ferrera’s small role captures another piece of the reality. She plays a second- or third-generation Chicana, an American citizen, who can’t speak Spanish but resorts to smuggling to pay for college tuition.
“Crossing the border and getting a visa is not enough,” Riggen says. “There’s an ongoing struggle.”
