‘Esta Isla’ Review: Richly Textured Drama Wrestles with Puerto Rico’s Troubles and Attributes from a Humanistic, On-the-Ground Perspective

Each time a character utters the title of this lauded Puerto Rican drama, “Esta Isla” (“This Island”), it communicates a bittersweet mix of feelings (part adoration, part frustration), as if the speaker was trying to make sense of their embattled homeland with each sentence.

Lush landscapes, economic hardship, proud people with an unwavering cultural identity, and voracious gringo-fueled gentrification comprise the makeup of a modern colony resisting the American empire’s crushing boot. And though politics rarely reach the screen explicitly, it’s clear that filmmakers Cristian Carretero and Lorraine Jones understand that making a movie in Puerto Rico about everyday Puerto Ricans is inherently defiant.

They seem to have conceived “Esta Isla” with three thematically distinct acts, each highlighting specific facets of life on the island, as well as its diverse geographical attributes. First, the coast, its fishermen, and the semi-urban environment where young men race their horses on concrete and feud over territorial disputes. That’s where Bebo (Zion Ortiz), the film’s protagonist, has come of age, under the wing of his older brother Charlie (Xavier Antonio Morales), a fisherman who doubles as drug dealer to support his partner and infant child. Their grandmother Aida (Georgina Borri) looms over them as a spiritual compass, but her concern can’t keep her boys away from the dangers around.

The sultry and richly textured frames of “Esta Isla” portray nature with an alluring earthiness. The characters, as shot by cinematographer Cedric Cheung-Lau, organically occupy these spaces, like the jungle or sea caves, which often feel otherworldly in their untainted beauty.

And yet, for all the entrancing beaches, greenery, and open skies, violence is very present in Bebo and Charlie’s quotidian experiences. A former friend turned reluctant foe, Moreno (Audicio Robles), warns Bebo that consequences for Charlie’s actions may be inevitable. And while Latin American stories where working-class young men get involved in criminal activities are a dime a dozen, Carretero and Jones use this trope as launchpad for a journey that ultimately reveals itself uncliched in how it unfolds.

While selling drugs at a club, Bebo meets Lola (Fabiola Victoria Brown), a young woman from the area’s upper crust, who’s no stranger to manicured golf courses and lavish homes. Although their material realities stand in direct opposition to one another, Lola feels an immediate affinity for her lanky suitor. When tragedy strikes Bebo’s family, the teenagers escape to the mountains, opening a new chapter that involves an older mentor, Cora (Teofilo Torres), and the physical labor of rural life. It’s here that the lovebirds actually begin to know each other, and where Puerto Rico, even further detached from the tourists’ point of view, comes alive as a place of resilience through community.

‘Esta Isla’Wiesner Distribution and Experimento Lúdico

In passing during this segment, while sharing a meal or in casual conversations, Carretero and Jones have their characters touch on the relationship between Puerto Rico and the neighboring Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic (Bebo’s father came from there), or the time that Lola’s father spent in the U.S. military and his disillusionment with the institution’s moral failings. These larger sociopolitical preoccupations remain just under the surface, never stepping fully into the foreground to take over the spotlight. Yet, they enter the narrative by way of the characters’ emotional connection to those before them.

It’s Bebo and Lola’s story in today’s Puerto Rico, but their present cannot be understood without acknowledging the many variables on a macro level that make them who they are. Lola’s father, for example, also had a history of defiance against the government alongside Cora (who Torres plays with paternal patience, as a man who’s seen the decades come and go on the island). Ortiz and Brown take on Bebo and Lola portraying the impulsiveness of youth, exacerbated, particularly in Bebo’s case, by poverty and limited options to make his way in the world. There’s a class divide between them — though Lola has endured trauma Bebo hasn’t experienced — and once the stormy appeal of their rendezvous is replaced by harsh reality, the frailty of their connection becomes evident. They don’t know each other.

For its final act, “Esta Isla” transports the pair to the edge of a cliff, still in hiding, as they each must decide how they’ll continue forward on their island. Throughout, there are instances where the filmmakers, in their effort to craft an intricate, humanistic mosaic, leave some compelling threads unexplored in favor of moving the story along. Bebo’s relationship with Charlie is intrinsically tied to his bond with the island, for example. And that brotherhood could have benefited from a more expansive unfurling, considering they lost their parents at an early age and have had to rely solely on each other since.

Still, there’s a striking scene of the brothers, a memory illuminated by the flames of a nearby fire, that crystalizes how much our love for a physical place only survives because of the people we shared that space with. Puerto Rico only exists as it does because of Puerto Ricans. And whether Bebo chooses to stay or leave, he will always belong there, to the waters that have washed him, the sands where his footprints are indelible, and the people who’ve loved him.

Grade: A-

Wiesner Distribution and Experimento Lúdico will release “Esta Isla” in New York City on Friday, March 20, before expanding to select cities throughout the country.

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