‘Desierto’ Trailer: ‘Gravity’ Screenwriter Makes His Debut With an Scorching Border Thriller

Jonas Cuaron is the son of award-winning filmmaker and Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron, and is credited with co-writing the screenplay for the elder Cuaron’s breathtaking space drama Gravity. Now the younger of the two is making his directorial debut with Desierto, a sun-soaked thriller that earned largely positive reviews when it premiered at TIFF back in September.

Gael Garcia Bernal stars in Desierto as a Mexican man illegally traveling across the U.S.-Mexican border with a group of fellow immigrants in a quest to reunite with his family. Just as they reach the land of the free, a mysterious man opens fire at their party, and bodies abruptly drop in terrifying fashion. That man is played  by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and what follows is a bit of a cat-and-mouse game through the desert, with Bernal fighting to keep himself — and what remains of his fellow travelers — alive out in the open…with nowhere to hide.

Desierto is a timely thriller, particularly in a political climate that’s been rough on immigration. Alfonso Cuaron has delivered some of our most riveting thrillers, and it looks as though Jonas has picked up more than his fair share of talent in the filmmaking department. And while Bernal has had a fairly impressive career, Morgan has been relegated to lesser B-movie and TV roles as of late, so it’s good to see him working with a director who seemingly knows how to utilize his oft-overlooked strengths.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

From Jonás Cuarón and Alfonso Cuarón, the acclaimed filmmakers of Gravity, comes a unique, modern vision of terror.  Desierto is a visceral, heart-pounding suspense-thriller packed with tension and suspense from start to finish, starring Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries and Y Tu Mamá También) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen). What begins as a hopeful journey to seek a better life becomes a harrowing and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante chases a group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous U.S.-Mexican border.  In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they continuously discover there’s nowhere to hide from the unrelenting, merciless killer.

Desierto hits theaters on March 4, 2016.