Michael Polish learned quickly that human trafficking wasn't a crisis only happening in a foreign land. The California-based writer and director discovered it was happening only a few miles from his home. That sparked Polish and his wife, actor Kate Bosworth, to put together the feature film "Nona."
The movie follows a Honduran girl, Nona (Sulem Calderon), as she makes the trek from her home to the United States to be with her mother. Nona gets help in making the journey from Hecho (Jesy McKinney), a man who says he's traveling to deal with a broken heart. What starts as a trip to fulfill a dream turns into a nightmare when Nona is forced into prostitution.
"Michael was driving back from work one day and he ended up hearing this story about a sex house that was busted not so far from our own house in Los Angeles," says Bosworth, who serves as an executive producer on "Nona." "He was shocked at the nature of what these girls had gone through.
"We didn't know much about what was happening. We knew what human trafficking was, but we didn't know enough about it so we started doing research."
They found that the general knowledge regarding human trafficking was on more of a sociological, political or economic level. The human element was being missed.
Polish started writing the script more than a year before the Central American migrant caravan started and made its way along the same route "Nona" takes. Because the movie was shot in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico just after tensions began to build between the U.S. and those countries, there were safety concerns. But, there was no way Polish would make the movie unless it was filmed in the real locations where so many have walked.
"There was _ and still is _ so much talk about the wall and us versus them plus the escalation of violence, it was the safety concerns and the political nature that was (at the) forefront on our minds," Bosworth says. "As we were nearing the date for our opening, our jaws dropped to the floor as to how timely the narrative is in the world.
"Obviously, that wasn't planned. All I can say is that I have a real hope that this movie does create an intense in humanity. If we lose that connection we are in real trouble as a society."
The idea with "Nona" was to create a story of one human being and how her life can be torn apart. They needed just the right actor to help get the message across. It was up to Calderon to do that, a heavy task for the young actress who had not worked professionally before.
"She is a truly, truly remarkable actor," Bosworth says of Calderon. "I had a front-row seat to her performance and she went deep and was fearless in doing so. Michael doesn't audition his actors. He meets someone and gets a feeling if they will be right.
"He sent me a photo of her and I could tell she had the very special spirit we were looking for. Her performance is absolutely remarkable to me."
Since working on "Nona," Calderon has landed several other roles, including the Disney film "The Jungle Cruise" with Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson.
Bosworth understands what it means to be a young actor who lands a big role early in their career. She was only 17 when she was cast in the TV series "Young Americans" in 2000. Since then, Bosworth has focused on feature films: "Straw Dogs," "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton," "Superman Returns." She was 19 when she starred in "Blue Crush."
"I wanted 'Blue Crush' more than any person on the planet. I wanted that role so bad. It was a very intensive process for me to get that role. I feel that way about work often and some of my biggest heartaches are I read something and I want something so bad and it's such an intense kind of passionate burn," Bosworth says. "Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't.
"My work is something that I feel that type of deep desire for."
And that desire is both for acting roles and times when she can produce a project that's intended to shine a bright light on a dark subject.
