Ever felt like an outcast? A new film from co-writer and director Conor Allyn (No Man’s Land) brings us back to the 1890s to tell a story with surprisingly relatable themes that modern moviegoers might just connect with. Amber Heard (The Rum Diary) plays an alienist doctor in the film In the Fire, which is set in South America and features a standout performance by a sort of Damien (or Antichrist) in training — a young boy accused of having demonic powers. Heard travels to the remote plantation to treat the boy, who has been ostracized by his religious community. Characters like Florence Pugh’s in The Wonder might come to mind, but In the Fire is certainly a different enough tale.

Heard has been in the news over the last year due to the televised trial against her ex, Johnny Depp. This is her first feature film to be released since the case concluded, and Heard certainly seems jazzed about the project. “The film is a meditation on the almost supernatural powers of love told through a strong-willed and independent woman at the turn of the 20th century,” said Heard in a statement. “I feel honored to be part of this labor of love and to be the lead in Conor Allyn’s vision. I feel lucky to be surrounded by such an amazing cast. They’re as dedicated and magical as the characters they play.”

We recently caught up with director Allyn to learn more about shooting on location in South America, working with Amber Heard, and her unique connection to the fictional story.

Exploring the Heated ‘Science vs. Religion’ Battle

Sure, In the Fire takes place on a remote South American plantation in the 1800s, but that doesn’t mean the story is laced with themes and issues that aren’t still pressing society today. The film becomes much more than just a doctor treating a conflicted young patient. “I find, whenever I’m writing my own stories, that they have to do with people who are exiled or outcasts from the normal community and what that feels like,” Allyn told MovieWeb.

“This movie definitely is about science versus religion,” continued Allyn. “Whenever you do a period movie, you want it to have great context to our contemporary world. And we’re still dealing with sort of fact versus belief, and science versus religion. But on a more personal level, it’s also about just what we would call today ‘bullying.’ ‘Okay, you’re different than everybody else. You’re out of the crowd.’ And in our film, we’re in a remote village in South America, where this disturbed boy is being ostracized by his community, by the zealot priest who’s the leader of that community, for reasons that the priest thinks are correct.”

Allyn continued on the theme of bullying and how it looks in our world today, particularly with Heard’s real-life experiences as of late. “This character of Grace, the doctor, comes in to try to help this boy and sort of escalates the war, the conflict between science and religion. But it’s just as relevant today. I think we all have been touched with some bullying in our lives. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t. And it just happens in a different way in this movie.” He elaborated:

“Grace gets dragged through the town square and whipped, literally and figuratively. And nowadays, it’s happening on social media on a global scale. It’s more than just your own little town where you might be ostracized; you can get ostracized from the whole world… That was something that Amber, because of her own situation in life and the things she’s gone through personally, connected with this character very quickly and kind of had that personal connection that I think you want an actor to have with a character.”

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Heard is certainly committed to the role, as demonstrated by her dramatic and fierce performance. Allyn had nothing but positive things to say about collaborating with the actress — who is also a new mom, which certainly helped with her character — for In the Fire. “She’s terrific. She’s a great person in front of and behind the camera,” said Allyn. “She connected with the story really well, both as the doctor who’s this sort of relentless, fearless truth teller, even when it gets her into hot water, and she also had a great impact.”

“She recently had a daughter,” he continued. “And in this movie, she kind of has the arc from a doctor with scientific instincts to help this boy, to maternal instincts to help him no matter what the science says, whether he’s strange or supernatural or whatever. Like, ‘I’m going to help him because I love him.’ And I think that was the arc of the character that we worked on the most, and that was most important, that relationship between her and this disturbed little boy.”

And because she had recently had her own child and had her own personal relationship with that, she was able to really nail that. And same with the kid, Lorenzo, who played Martin, two incredible young actors, 11 years old. And the two of them just had magical chemistry.

Playing a Possessed Child While ‘90% Blind’
Saban Films

Another standout performance is the “possessed” boy himself: Martin, played by Lorenzo McGovern Zaini. Those eyes of his in the film are piercing and somewhat terrifying, and Allyn explained how they pulled it off. “Lorenzo was just terrific,” said Allyn. “He was also wearing these contact lenses; essentially, they make his pupils different sizes. And he’s basically blind. When you’re wearing these kinds of contact lenses, you’re basically seeing through like a little pinpoint. And so he was, like, 90% blind through the whole movie.”

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Combined with the picturesque yet haunting landscapes in the film, serving as effective backdrops for a unique period piece, In the Fire makes for a refreshing change of scenery on the big screen. We’re out of Los Angeles, out of New York, etc. “We shot half the movie in southern Italy and in Guatemala, where we also had some active volcanoes, which was very apropos for a movie that questions the supernatural, superstitions,” said Allyn.

We were shooting in Antigua, which is the old colonial capital of Guatemala, and there were three active volcanoes that were exploding every other day. And they were pretty close to us, which was really interesting. Not dangerous for us, per se, but very appropriate for the material.

Yes, it’s a period piece, but In the Fire also features components that are popular in other film genres as well. Allyn explained his process in pulling this off:

“Filmmaking is a lot about world building. I personally would much rather tell an untold story or build a new world in a unique space, rather than repeat one that we are already familiar with. So for this movie, it was sort of a Western but in South America, so I call it like a Gaucho Western, because South America has great Western culture, which just doesn’t make it into Clint Eastwood movies. And then also, you’ve got the demonic possession genre going on as well, in this Gaucho Western space. Mixing some genres, I find to be a lot of fun.”

From Saban Films, In the Fire is now in theaters, on demand and on digital.