'The Absence of Eden' a border drama that's compelling and only slightly political

In one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in any movie so far this year, “The Absence of Eden” star Zoe Saldaña, playing an undocumented immigrant named Esmee, is alone in a seedy motel room, trapped in an ongoing nightmare. Esmee clenches her fists as her face contorts in anguish, and she lets out a primal scream — but the scream is silent, as even an overt display of suffering could get her into more trouble.

That sequence, and Saldaña’s performance as a whole, is a reminder that while Sandaña is of course best known for blockbuster franchises including the “Avatar” movies, “Star Trek” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” she is a gifted and versatile character/lead actress, as evidenced by her work in films such as “The Terminal,” “Premium” and “Out of the Furnace.”

In this taut and gripping drama from director/co-writer Marco Perego (Zoe’s real-life husband), Saldaña delivers arguably her most impactful performance yet in a film that mirrors today’s headlines but eschews overt political commentary in favor of an unsparing, realistic and sometimes tragic story about humanity, and in some cases, the lack thereof.

Saldaña’s Esmee is working as a dancer in a Mexican bar when an incident occurs that will surely land her in jail for a long time, even though she was acting in self-defense. Esmee has no choice but to take the cash she has been saving up and use it to enlist the services of a coyote who will transport a group of men, women and children across the border in the dead of night. After a young girl is separated from her mother, Esmee vows to take care of the girl — but then Esmee is also separated from the girl and forced to work as a cleaning woman in the aforementioned motel, where her real duties involve moving drugs for the cartel. If she refuses, she’ll never see the girl again.

In a separate storyline that doesn’t cross paths with Esmee’s plight until late in the film, the perfectly cast Garrett Hedlund plays Shipp, a rookie ICE agent who is paired with a cynical veteran named Dobbins (the always excellent Chris Coy). When Shipp embarks on a romance with a schoolteacher named Yadira (Adria Arjona, doing powerful work) and Dobbins meets her, the exchange goes like this:

“So Yadira, where you from?”

“I’m from here.”

“What here, here? Like born here?”

With New Mexico standing in for both sides of the border, “The Absence of Eden” is saturated with dark colors and captures a murky and complicated and problematic world. We learn both Esmee and Shipp come from dark backgrounds, and now both have found themselves in untenable situations that most likely won’t be resolved without arrests and/or harsh violence.

Director Perego and co-writer Rick Rapoza pack a lot of story into a 97-minute film; my chief complaint is that it plays almost more like an extended pilot for a limited series with the potential for greatness than a fully realized feature film. Esmee and Shipp have each reached a certain level of closure, but we’d sure like to check in on their respective lives in the weeks and months and years to follow.