'Same Moon,' Seen From Cloud Nine

Of course, there's the chance of a backlash from those who think illegal immigrants are criminals, not worthy of this tender portrayal. "I don't expect there to be a backlash," Utley says. "It's more an emotional movie than a political movie."

Nowadays, border-crossing narratives more typically take the form of gritty documentaries shown in art houses and on public television (for example, the recent "Al Otro Lado" on PBS).

In the filmography of border-crossing immigration dramas, "Moon" is somewhat unusual for focusing on the heartache of a boy and mother separated by the border, and for adopting a more uplifting tone, says Paul Espinosa, a filmmaker and professor of Transborder Chicana/o Latina/o Studies at Arizona State University. It may be precisely because Riggen did not make another "El Norte" or "Alambrista!" (the 1977 film in which the hero gets deported) that major studios are so interested, he suggests.

"You could take the position that if a film were made like that today, the chances of getting it released theatrically would be very difficult," Espinosa says.

Riggen was not a mother when she made "Moon," but now she has a 7-month-old daughter, Francesca.

"I made the movie, I had a baby, and then I watched the movie again, and I'm like, Oh. My. God," she says. "It was painful. It hurt my heart."

Ask her if she could have made Rosario's choices as a mother, and she's at a loss: "No, probably, no, maybe I would have, I don't know. Who knows?!"

But if Rosario is out there, this movie is for her.

"To all the Rosarios in the country, to all the Carlitoses, to the father of Carlitos, and to the grandmas, and to everybody in the Latino community," she says. "I am pretty sure they are going to embrace it and they are going to love it, because finally somebody is portraying the good side of who they are, and how good-natured they are, and warm and funny and loving people they are."