In their debut feature film, Esta Isla (This Island), Lorraine Jones Molina and Christian Carretero narrate a story about love and crime. Bebo (Zion Ortiz) is a working-class young man who lives on an island in Puerto Rico. He fishes in the sea with his brother Charlie (Xavier Morales). They try to work on their boat and stay away from the crime that surrounds them in their neighborhood. Bebo loves horses and dreams about having a stable one day. When his horse needs a steroid, he needs to ask the local drug dealer for his support. In the meantime, Bebo meets with Lola (Fabiola Brown), a young, rich dancer who wishes to leave her mansion and move to his father’s house in the countryside. Therefore, when tensions rise between the brothers and the drug cartel, Bebo is only left with the option to leave his home. Lola joins him, and they march without a clear plan to escape death.
Esta Isla is a tale about crime, love, and belonging. The directors introduce the first act, exploring the locality of the island of Puerto Rico. We watch Bebo’s daily activities, his visits to his ill grandmother, who fears for her grandsons’ safety due to their involvement with the criminal upbrings of the isle. Therefore, their life is about surviving and drifting apart from the dirty money that circles beneath their humble reality. It contrasts with the luxury of Lola, who lives among the financial elites of that place, and she is not satisfied with her life. In this sense, it is a conventional story of two opposing individuals falling in love with each other. There is an evident difference between their lifestyles, as the visual style also highlights the discrepancy between the multiple-room condos of Lola’s family and the single-room slum where he lives with his brother, sister-in-law, and niece. She is trying to escape the prison of capital accumulation, and he is trying to survive violence.
The film uses the coming-of-age as a structure to study pain, poverty, and survival. Consequently, Bebo and Lola are on the verge of discovery; they are still understanding their place in the world, and escaping their hometown sounds like a reasonable idea, especially in the context of life danger, which is the case for them. Hence, Zion Ortiz and Fabiola Brown are essential to the audience’s engagement in the story because the film focuses on the couple’s experience of pivoting their lives to protect themselves. Brown embodies well a wealthy heir who wants to abdicate her privileges to explore the world. In this sense, the actress delivers a mix of naivety and charm that provides nuance to this young girl who is unsure of what she expects from the world. It is a fascinating portrayal of someone rejecting stability and comfort to find her roots and the steps of her father, who worked in the country of Puerto Rico. She lets her mansion be used to work in banana harvests because of her connections with her father.
However, the film spends excessive time in the first act establishing Bebo’s life – his brother is a crucial element, but it does not add enough development to create more drama. Also, it gets an abrupt shift from the city to the countryside of the island. We do not get to understand the community of farmers and their organizations. It does not provide much engagement with the fundamental supporting character, a farmer who welcomes them to his land and gives them a job. Besides the lack of more information about him, his arch delivers a segment about the collective organization of the working class in the Global South, where the elites exploit them to turn more profit. Those workers understand the importance of supporting each other, and the inclusion of the young couple in the banana plantation. Hence, the film features a fascinating commentary on leaving your privileges to connect with your roots, the connection between yourself and the working class before you.
Esta Isla is a coming-of-age story about class, violence, and love. The chemistry between the lead couple provides an engaging film on the contrasting classes, privileges, and life opportunities. Lorraine Jones Molina and Christian Carretero use a raw visual portrayal to showcase the violence of the third world, where people solve their problems through gunshots. Even though it is an uneven drama and it lacks development for its supporting characters. The film is a beautiful representation of the island of Puerto Rico and its natural riches, in a sense, they converses with societal behaviors and organizations.
Esta Isla recently played at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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