Director Jonás Cuarón has directed an almost unbearably tense and beautifully crafted thriller with his new film, DESIERTO. It stars Gael Garcia Bernal as one of a dozen illegal Mexican immigrants paying two guides to cross into the USA through a searingly hot desert. We start the movie in media res - there’s no back story or context - just a savage struggle to survive. When their truck breaks down, the people are forced to cross the desert on foot, which would be a tough enough challenge. But into the mix we find a racist ex-soldier (a frighteningly intense Jeffrey Dean Morgan) with a hunting dog and a sure aim. We’ve barely caught our breath before he’s picked off the main body of the immigrant party like so much game to be shot. And then the main body of the film begins, as he hunts down the remaining four Mexicans.
