Diego Luna on Directing ‘Ashes,’ His Fears About the Future of Movies and the Prejudice Immigrants Face: ‘It’s Based on Ignorance and Selfishness’

“Ashes,” a family drama about a young woman who leaves Mexico with her younger brother to reunite with their mother in Spain, was deeply personal to Diego Luna, who directs the film, in addition to co-writing its screenplay. Growing up in Mexico, Luna, best known for playing a swashbuckling rebel fighter in the “Star Wars” series “Andor,” had a deep understanding of the immigrant experience.

“I live in a country that, because of the lack of opportunities, has a lot of people going to the north and leaving their families behind in order to find opportunities,” Luna said via Zoom a few weeks before “Ashes” premieres at the Cannes Film Festival. “They are escaping from violence and poverty.”

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They also frequently encounter hatred and prejudice when they arrive in a new country. U.S. President Donald Trump rode a wave of anti-immigrant policies to the White House, but Luna says the United States isn’t alone in demonizing migrants.

“It’s everywhere,” Luna says. “And it’s based on ignorance and selfishness. It’s related to this fear of what you have being taken away from you. It’s this stupid idea of feeling like you need to protect yourself.

“I remember seeing all these migrant caravans going through Mexico and all these beautiful instances of humanity, of people being very kind and understanding to those who were traveling through Mexico, as well as people who were scared and reacted terribly,” he adds. “That duality I witnessed in my own country.”

“Ashes” tells a similar story. The film follows 21-year-old Lucila (Anna Díaz) and her brother Diego (Sergio Bautista) as they struggle to adjust to life in Madrid. Their mother (Adriana Paz) relocated to the city years ago in search of a better job, a decision that left her kids feeling abandoned.

“My mother died when I was 2 years old,” Luna says. “So for me, the idea of not having that figure in my life is something strong. After the tragedy of my mother’s death, my dad was left with the responsibility of raising me and also making sure he could deliver what I needed. Many times, he wasn’t around because he was in the theater and had to travel for work. Often, we have to grow up to understand what our parents did for us or didn’t do for us.”

While Luna is set to star in Disney’s live-action remake of “Tangled” next, he’s eager to get behind the camera again and is writing a script he hopes to direct.

“I love acting, and I’ll keep acting,” says Luna, who rarely appears in the films he directs. “But I don’t find myself more comfortable anywhere than directing and producing. It’s a much richer experience. As an actor, you’re invited to a very short part of the process, but it’s tiny compared to being on the whole journey of a film like you are as a director.”

As much as he loves making movies, he’s worried about the health of the art form that has given him his career. Hollywood is changing, with studios merging at a dizzying clip, and audiences embracing video games and YouTube with the same fervor they once had for theaters.

“I’m concerned with movies not being part of the life of people,” Luna says. “I see my kids, and they don’t go to the cinema the way I used to. Most of the storytelling they get is a very individualized experience, and there’s loneliness in that. Cinema lets audiences share an event with others and makes them feel part of a community you didn’t know you belonged to. Growing up, cinema was not an escape. It was a mirror I could reflect on. It was the place where I could dream. And I’m scared society will lose that opportunity.”