Poetry In Motion: An Interview with ‘The Absence of Eden’ Director and Co-Writer Marco Perego

The Absence of Eden takes place at the border between the United States and Mexico – a hellish landscape inhabited by coyotes, armed officers, desperate immigrants, and refugees. When Esmee (Saldaña), a young woman working as a private dancer in Mexico, is forced to commit a violent act of self-defense that results in the death of a cartel member, she flees her homeland for sanctuary in the United States. Guided by a ruthless Coyote and a group of undocumented immigrants, she befriends a young mother and her daughter along the way. Before crossing the border, the mother is taken from the group, and Esmee promises to protect her daughter and help them reunite again in America, touching off an interlocking story about people struggling to survive on America's border with Mexico.

The Absence of Eden leaves no emotional stone unturned. It’s bare, raw, and an honest depiction of life at the in-between – in this case, freedom, and salvation and how can those two live peacefully as one? I spoke with artist and filmmaker Marco Perego about his approach to this film, “Approaching the film like an art piece, rather writing a straight narrative, it was an idea to write it as a poem – not just from a narrative perspective but through the human perspective and bring out the emotional aspects of life.” And he did just that. The way in which he sees the world through the camera lens is unique to him – but it’s how he captures the image that makes you, the viewer, dig deeper and see things from a new perspective. And with each additional viewing of the film, you come away with a new revelation, a deeper understanding and appreciation.

While this is Marco’s directorial debut, he continues to draw inspiration from marginalized worlds and humanity, asking questions and putting a lens on topics others may uncomfortably shy away from. From April 20 to November 24, he will be participating in the Pavilion of the Holy See at the 60^th Venice Biennale, alongside nine other artists.

Within this conversation with Marco Perego, we discuss the imagery and character and how it's all intertwined to feed the poetic story.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: I’d love to start by talking about the imagery and camera movement, where it’s placed and what is captured within the frame.

Marco Perego: For me, I was approaching with this idea of the need to be a visual story. The film is designed in three different colors: red, blue, and white. The idea was to write a film about Adam and Eve, because they left Eden and God was not there, in that very conceptual sense. That was the idea when we wrote this film.

Sadie: Was it always framed around this immigration story? Especially with these two characters – and how Shipp has to deal with all of this emotionally, both internally and externally?

Marco: Yeah, I think to your point, everything started…the idea was, I tried to approach this from, ‘don't show one side of the border,’ but also ‘don't be in the stereotype of every single film’ - the idea was to try to show something different. And that's really, what the feeling and the approach of the idea of the film was.

Sadie: What was the writing collaboration like with your co-writer Rick Rappoza?

Marco: Because I come from [a] visual [background], the idea was to write the story first, and after we [did the] storyboard and from the storyboard, we rewrote the entire film again. And the idea was, to integrate this idea of images with the idea of the story, and like you say, is to show the conflict of internal conflict and external conflict, and that's what I think it was. He needs to do the job at the same time he has so many moral conflicts. I was also making a film with, OK, start with the question and finish with a question. It was really like a piece of conversation.

Sadie: There's a great line that resonated with me as a viewer when Esmerelda reads from her grandmother’s journal, “...be able to stand in the wind.” I just thought that to be very profound just in terms of all these characters and how life knocks you down, but there is motivation behind that.

Marco: I agree with you. The idea was to give a poem to normal people, to give them dignity and humanity. That was just about trying to understand through the poem, the storytelling or the film, because if you read the two poems that she’s reading, it tells us what was going on – and that was the idea and approach at the beginning.

Sadie: As a director, and with this being your first feature, in terms of working with this talent, were there any big takeaways for you on how to approach working with an actor to tap into so much vulnerability or maybe something else you learned that you’ll carry with you onto your next film?

Marco: Oh, wow. Yes, for sure. It was such an experience making this film because it started really like an idea, almost like a sculptural piece and say, ‘OK, why don't we go and try to do something like that.’ And after, slowly, slowly skinning the film. 

And now if you ask me, what next? …is to elevate to completing the narrative story with all the visuals and all the worlds I created. And that's for sure, what I think is very, very important. Because I think, as you say, it takes a lot of interpretation to rewatch this thing a couple of times, to understand the poem, and to understand that is not a simple film. If you, one level, just watch the story about an immigration border, you’re missing completely the point about the entire film.

Sadie: What do you hope audiences take away from watching this film?

Marco: Have a conversation the day after breakfast about the people around us and the humanity aspect of that. That's really what this movie is about.

The Absence of Eden is now in Theaters for a limited time.