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Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and 'Carne y Arena' cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki attend a Cannes photocall.(Photo: Pascal Le Segretain, Getty Images)

CANNES, France One of the best things at this year'sCannes Film Festivalisn't a movie, at least in a traditional sense.

Carne y Arena("Flesh and Sand") is a groundbreaking virtual-reality exhibit that invites visitors to step into the shoes of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Created by Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu (The Revenant, Birdman), the seven-minute installation drops participantsinto the middle of a chilly desert at dusk, where a group of weary, multi-generational Hispanicfamilies are spotted by helicopters and caughtby U.S. Border Patrol agents.

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The simulation, which runs through Sunday at Cannes before opening in Los Angelesin July, is housed in an airplane hangar 15 minutes away from the festival center. Upon arrival, visitors are escorted one by one into an austere holding room, where the recovered shoes of actual migrants are strewn across the floor. There, theyare asked to remove their own shoes and socks before entering a giant square room filled with coarse, cold sand. Attendants then strap on VRheadsets and backpacks, which are attached to a wire hanging from the center of the room to ensure participantsdon't wander into a wall.

The story that unfolds is equal parts chilling and harrowing. Migrants shriek and scatteras vehicles with blinding headlights close in on them. Border agents armed with machine guns bark orders and force them on the ground, where a dehydrated old woman is cradled by a crying family member. Small children play with toys before they are thrown into a van, just as a teenage boy is pushed onto the hood of a car by a belligerent officer. As the sun rises on the barren desert the next morning, all that remains are their scattered shoes and belongings in billowing dust.

A visitor in a virtual-reality headset explores 'Carne y Arena' at Cannes Film Festival.(Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival)

Part of what makes the immersive film so affecting to watch is thatIrritu asked undocumented immigrants not professional actors to recreate their actual experiences of trying to cross the border illegally. Real-world elements also add authenticity: Cold gusts of air hit visitors'cheeks as they trek barefoot through the gritty sand, with sounds of sirens and helicopters droning. The photorealistic avatars walk right alongside participants, and in one especially unsettling moment, a border agent yellsin their faces, demanding that they geton theirknees withhands up.

Carne y Arenaviscerally, and emotionally, puts a human face to the plight of illegal immigrants. But it isn't the only project at Cannes this year to spotlight migrant stories.

In her heartfelt documentarySea Sorrow, actress/activist Vanessa Redgravemakes an impassioned pleafor developed nations to open their borders to refugeesfrom war-torn Middle Eastern nations such as Syria and Afghanistan. Hungarian drama Jupiter's Moon is an unconventional superhero fable, about a Syrian refugee (Zsombor Jger) who discovers he can fly after getting shot crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border. Although met with boos at Cannes, the ambitious filmpoignantly illustrates how people fear and often violently react to those who are seen asdifferent.

Syrian refugee Aryan (Zsombor Jger) gets the power to levitate in the divisive 'Jupiter's Moon.'(Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival)

Then there's the final scene of Michael Haneke's French-language dramaHappy End, in which the guilt-ridden Pierre Laurent (Franz Rogowski) bargesinto his mother, Anne's(Isabelle Huppert), bougie seaside weddingparty with a group of unassumingAfrican refugees.

Disgusted byhis family's prosperous construction firm, and condescending treatment of their Moroccan live-in servants, Pierre attempts to sharethe migrants' stories withthe stunned crowd, but is promptly punchedby his uncle Thomas (Mathieu Kassovitz)and dragged out of the room. Afterward, Anne apologizesfor her son's outburstand awkwardly arranges a table for the group of men to stay for lunch.

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The scene is perhaps the only timein the movie which is competing for Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or award on Sunday that the self-possessed Laurents are forced to look beyond their upper-class privilege towhat's going on right outside their mansion doors. At a news conference earlier this week, Haneke (the Oscar-winningAmour) expressed his distaste with such a narrow worldview.

"It's hard to talk about contemporary society without referring to how blind some people are to real life," Haneke said."There's a certain bitterness in (Happy End)about the way we liveand how we're so deeply involved in ourselves. That really annoys me. ... We have the impression that we're well-informed, but we really know nothing."

The well-to-do Laurent clan at the heart of Michael Haneke's 'Happy End' gets an unexpected dose of reality when a group of refugees turn up at a family gathering.(Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival)

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Cannes: VR exhibit shines sympathetic light on illegal immigration - USA TODAY