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Demián BichirandJulia Goldani Telleswill be the first to say that shootingBeaconon location was simultaneously one of the most challenging and most rewarding – perhaps even most fun – experiences they’d ever had on a production. “The actual location kind of gave me everything that I needed because it [was] such a violent climate,” said Goldani Telles of the storms in Newfoundland, a small coastal province in Canada, in our Zoom interview ahead of the film’s premiere at the2024Tribeca Festival. She later recalled how the cast and crew even lost “a couple half-days [because] the wind was too intense – it was too dangerous.” Of course, when you’re making a shipwreck thriller, these conditions are ideal.
Directed by Roxy Shih (Painkillers) and written by Julio Rojas,Beaconfollows Emily (Goldani Telles), a young sailor embarking on a solo journey to circumnavigate the world, who gets caught in a violent storm near the coast of South America. She wakes up in a small cabin on a remote island, her left thigh, bruised from the shipwreck, expertly stitched up. Her rescuer is the island’s only inhabitant – and the keeper of the lighthouse – Ismael (Bichir). Theintense storm outsiderages on, preventing either of them from communicating with officials on the mainland. The pair strike up a tenuous camaraderie, but Ismael’s mysterious behavior and other strange occurrences on the island force Emily to question what’s true.
Braving the Storm Together in Beacon
Driven by an overzealous sense of adventure, young sailor Emily (Julia Goldani Telles), quickly runs into trouble when she shipwrecks on a remote island off the coast of South America. She’s rescued by the island’s lone inhabitant, Demián Bichir’s mysterious light keeper Ismael. With communications down due to incredibly stormy conditions, they try to work together to ensure each other’s survival, but tension grows once Emily begins to question Ismael’s lack of answers and the bizarre occurrences they encounter as time passes.
Beaconis one of those movies withfewer than five characters, and, in this case, only Bichir and Goldani Telles are on screen. This gives the film an extra isolationist feel, underscoring the mental and emotional toll being seemingly trapped on the island has on Emily and providing context for some of Ismael’s eccentricities. What’s more,Beaconresists giving audiences a clear-cut protagonist and antagonist: both Emily and Ismael are one and the other, their statuses constantly changing like the wind depending on whatever circumstances are at hand.
“It’s one of those things you’re always looking for in a character, in any material – the possibility of going from one extreme to another,” said Bichir of Ismael’s complexity. He gave the utmost praise to Rojas' script for containing everything he needed to build his character, calling it “a beautiful roller coaster” and “a lot of fun on paper and then fantastic [during the shoot].”
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Because Bichir and Goldani Telles were essentially the only actors on-location throughoutBeacon’s production process, and considering the intensity of their roles and the harshness of the environment they were in, the two actors naturally leaned on each other. “He was really protective of me,” said Goldani Telles of Bichir. “I felt very grounded in the relationship with him as actors.”
For Goldani Telles, who made her film debut in 2018, shootingBeaconwas “a formative moment” in her career and an eye-opening experience of thepossibilities of independent filmmaking: “I was really invigorated by the whole experience. Invigorated, protected, and challenged.”
On Working With Director Roxy Shih
“She’s a great example of how broad the human experience is,” said Goldani Telles of Shih, whom she expected would be as dark and mysterious asBeaconitself but actually turned out to be bright and friendly. This sort of energy carried onto set, which the actor described asa deeply collaborative experiencebetween both cast and crew. “[Roxy] really had no ego. I felt very lucky that I could bring ideas to the table, and she would give me her opinion. She and our cinematographer Daphne [Qin Wu] were very, very close, and the way they made the movie look and feel –the visual storytellingwas just very cool, and I’m very proud of that.”
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Bichir echoed Goldani Telles' sentiments, calling Shih a “bigger-than-life-type of personality.” He remarked on how making any kind of movie is inherently challenging, “but, to me, that’s the only way you’re able to make such a film.” The actor also added, “It was a challenge from Day Zero – as Julia mentioned, just that alone was an adventure. And then, every shooting day was a challenge of many different things, and I think that worked in our favor to tell such a difficult story.”
Beaconpremieres at Tribeca on June 8. For more information on the film, including screenings and tickets, visitthe festival website.
