Pain on the Lam: 'Esta Isla'’s Borinquen Requiem

By Julia Krys

Like many tourist destinations, life for locals tells a very different story than it does for those who visit. In directors Cristian Carretero and Lorraine Jones’ 2025 crime thriller, Esta Isla, they shine a spotlight on life far from mainstream Puerto Rico. Protagonist Bebo (Zion Ortiz) is a fisherman with his brother Charlie (Xavier Antonio Morales), but when their efforts don’t make ends meet, they must turn toward crime.

Jones and Carretero frame criminal activity thoughtfully. Bebo and Charlie’s day-to-day infractions are indirect – as common as punching a timecard. The tone shifts drastically when a murder takes place. The obscurity of crime comes into full focus, and Bebo must flee to save his own life.

Zion Ortiz in Esta Isla via Tribeca Film Festival.

Although alternative routes of survival are common in Bebo’s community, they seem foreign to his girlfriend Lola (Fabiola Victoria Brown). She is accustomed to wealth and opportunities that reach beyond the island. Still, Lola is unhappy with “gringolandia.” Like many characters, her love for Puerto Rico coexists with dissatisfaction with its political status.

Bebo and Lola’s relationship may have originated from a place of lust. But it grows into a quintessential young adulthood love story as their initial bond transcends physical comfort. Their complete opposition echoes Shakespearean themes of “star-crossed lovers.” Bebo is living in poverty, outrunning murderers who are hunting him. Meanwhile, Lola lives in a world of wealth and excess, yet her abusive family gives her reason to flee. Their shared desire for escape, despite their drastically different reasons for seeking it, encapsulates the pain of wayward youth baked into Esta Isla.

From there, Bebo and Lola’s relationship becomes the core fabric with which the story is woven.

Zion Ortiz and Fabiola Brown in Esta Isla via IMDb.

For Lola, their escape becomes a pilgrimage, a way for her to reconnect with her absent fugitive father as they attempt to search for vestiges of his former life. Though her father’s flight is frozen in the past, Bebo is actively living an exile nightmare. In the backdrop of Puerto Rico’s thick green jungles, whispers of threats on his life accumulate.

The Shakespearean mirrors don’t end with Lola and Bebo, as other members of the ensemble fulfill common character types. Bebo’s grandmother Aida (Georgina Borri) and a local drug dealer, Moreno (Audicio Robles), fall into tropey renderings of overly emotional portrayals. Though the weight of their characters is still felt throughout the film, they remain most powerful looming off-screen, as viewers understand one as a source of refuge and the other a source of pain. These performances are in stark contrast to Zion and Fabiola’s portrayals of Bebo and Lola, as they carry immense pressure and deep introspection even in the most mundane of moments.

Zion Ortíz and Fabiola Brown in Esta Isla BTS via IMDb.

Although the tone goes through many evolutions, it lands in a melancholic misunderstanding. The characters have endured significant pain due to just falling short of truly perceiving one another. Jones and Carretero excel at imbuing meaning through dichotomies: placing stress on relaxing beaches, pain in celebrations, and self-loathing in love.

The thematic throughline, at times heavy-handedly, is how this community is failed by their support systems, both governmental and familial. They are doing their best to make life worth living. For Bebo and Lola, the real challenge is learning how to stay still – to sit with the pain rather than outrun it.