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 Entertainment | March 2008 
"La Misma Luna," an Immigration Drama with a Novela Touch
 Lewis Beale - NY Daily News
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| | Adrián Alonso (left) and Eugenio Derbez in “La Misma Luna.” | | |
A few years back, when movie director Patricia Riggen decided to make a film about the U.S.-Mexican border, she says she “got criticism from people saying, ‘Why are you making a movie about immigration?’”
“It wasn’t the hot topic it is now,” says the Guadalajara-native. “But I saw it as a universal story of family separation, which we have seen through all cultures and periods of history.”
Riggen’s film, “La Misma Luna,” which opens next Wednesday, is the story of Rosario (Kate Del Castillo), an undocumented immigrant who works as a housekeeper in Los Angeles, and Carlitos (played deftly by Adrian Alonso), the 9-year-old son she has left behind in Mexico with her mother.
When grandma dies, the boy decides to reunite with his mom and embarks on a harrowing journey to El Norte that involves being smuggled across the border, dealing with white slavers, La Migra and other roadblocks.
Also appearing in the film — retitled in English “Under The Same Moon” — is “Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera as a human smuggler and norteńo music legends Los Tigres Del Norte. Comedian Eugenio Derbez plays a prominent role as an undocumented worker running from the police.
Riggen, 37, says she was attracted to her compatriot Ligiah Villalobos’ script “because the point of view was that of a kid. I saw a love story, with the loved ones separated, in this case by the border.”
There’s a healthy dose of daytime soap opera melodrama in Riggen’s film, which the director, who laughingly describes herself as a “girl who grew up in Mexico watching telenovelas,” readily acknowledges.
Riggen started out as a journalist and then got a master’s degree in directing and screenwriting from Columbia University.
“There were very few female directors in Mexico,” she says. “Only four, and I thought it was like being an astronaut. ... But coming here [To New York] democratized me, allowed me to discover myself.”
Riggen, who lives in Los Angeles, says she made the film to show American audiences “the other side of the coin.”
“[To] shed a little light on the humanity of all these people around us — the ones doing all these hard jobs — and make them realize they have their own struggles, that they’re human,” she says.
Bargain ranchera
What’s the cost of getting one of Mexico’s legendary bands to perform in a low-budget film? You’d be surprised.
“La Misma Luna” director Patricia Riggen was looking for a band to appear in a scene where young Carlitos and a migrant worker he has befriended are given a ride by a group of musicians on their way to a gig.
El grupo? None other than Los Tigres Del Norte.
“I got the No. 1 norteńo band because they have always been the voices of the immigrant experience,” says Riggen.
“Who better than Los Tigres? I knew they didn’t have a song about a child crossing the border, and I thought they would be interested. They responded to the story, wrote a song and performed in the movie — for no money.” |
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