New Movie Explores Mysterious 'Beauty and Healing' That Emerges From Tragedy

Multiple Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor Martin Sheen stars in the upcoming film "The Vessel," which shares the story of a small Puerto Rican town that experiences a resurgence of faith after years of grief and despair.

The film begins 10 years after a tidal wave struck the local elementary school, carrying out to sea all 46 of the children inside the building.

Image source: YouTube

Sheen, a devout Catholic, plays the town priest, Father Douglas, who, despite his attempts to console the devastated townspeople, sees little change. Mothers, stuck in a perpetual state of mourning, refuse to have children.

Douglas begins to fall prey to the same despair, voicing at one point that, perhaps miracles are nothing but tragedies "narrowly avoided by chance." But things take a turn one day when a young local man named Leo builds a mysterious structure out of the school’s remains. The spontaneous act serves as a sort of spiritual awakening, shaking the town from its grief-stricken lull.

Image source: YouTube

Director Julio Quintana, whose brother Lucas plays Leo, wrote on the film's website that the “central element” of "The Vessel" is the concept of mystery and how it relates to faith.

“As the grieving parents try desperately to grasp the meaning of their tragedy, they become paralyzed by their inability to understand. Mystery itself becomes a hostile element in their lives, something to be feared and avoided,” he writes. "My hope is that through the story and the characters of ‘The Vessel,’ audiences everywhere will be transported to a romantic and emotional world in which mystery is not a menacing force, but a profound instrument of beauty and healing."

The film was shot in the impoverished neighborhood of La Perla, Puerto Rico.

“We shot in one of the poorest communities on the island; notorious for its violence and drug dealing,” Quintana said in a statement. “Most Puerto Ricans were shocked that we were filming there since not even the police set foot inside. But the whole community really got behind the project and it became a source of pride for all the community leaders, extras and locations owners who participated in the film.”

Every scene of the film was shot in both English and Spanish, resulting in two identical movies.

"The Vessel" is currently in post-production and will hit theaters nationwide in September.

Watch a scene from "The Vessel," which was sent first to TheBlaze: