Weeks into his homecoming, a car accident kills Torres’ wife and son. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt, he turns to opioids to cope with the unbearable pain, triggering a downward spiral that impacts his mental health and relationships.
Director Wilfred La Salle. Photo: Wilfred La Salle
“The film tackles the opioid crisis, mental health and homelessness,” La Salle said. “The film’s core message is simple; it’s that one act of kindness could change a person’s life, but it can also change the world. That’s what we’re doing here with this film.”
“Jose Torres is invisible to society, and what’s important to understand is that he’s a father, he’s someone’s husband, he’s someone’s loved one,” La Salle continued. “We walk past homeless people every day, and what we don’t realize is that every one of them is still a human being who has a unique story.”
He explained that the villain in the film is not any person but society and how people treat those who are less fortunate.
Director Wilfred La Salle. Photo: Wilfred La Salle
“During the film, he meets a wealthy CEO named Maxwell Cade who lost his brother during 9/11, and what ends up happening is he rebuilds Jose’s life,” La Salle said. “Jose is given a new, fresh start. What the film does tackle is the Veteran’s Affairs. There are a lot of interior scenes shot in the VA where they’re denied benefits.”
In the story, Torres gets a back injury during his tour in Iraq, and he is prescribed opioids, which results in an addiction.
“That’s how he ends up homeless,” La Salle said. “Everything spirals out on top of losing his wife and son when he comes home post-deployment.”
He also said Brooklyn is at the heart of the production.
“We’re always highlighting Brooklyn,” La Salle said. “It is my second home. I’m from the Bronx, born and raised, but I love Brooklyn. I shot my last film, ‘The Security Guard,’ there, and we shot a lot on the Brooklyn Bridge. Every film I make, I shoot there. We want to highlight the local talent. We want to highlight the borough. We want to show the diversity in the film.”
“The Veteran” was filmed in Brooklyn. Photo: Wilfred La Salle
All the war scenes in the film were shot in Floyd Bennett Field. La Salle did a lot of research, receiving insight from Valentin-Perez, a veteran who told him about his experience.
“He said every case is different, but he had a lot of issues with the VA and a lot of issues with them not giving him what he needed,” La Salle said. “He said there’s a lot of homelessness amongst veterans and no one understands what’s happening here. When they serve the country they’re glorified, but then when they come home, they’re discarded and left by the side, and that’s what I wanted to highlight.”
The filmmaker has always loved movies and knew he wanted to make them at an early age.
“I grew up around a family of civil servants,” he said. “My father was a police officer. My mother worked at the hospital, so I was always told to get a pension, get benefits, do all those things that everyone tells you to do. No one ever tells you to follow your passion. As I got older, I said, ‘I’m going to make films.’”
La Salle continued, “I bought $10,000 worth of camera equipment. At the time, my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, said, ‘You’re crazy. You don’t know how to do any of this. You never went to film school. How are you going to do this?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but I have the vision, and I’m going to start creating this.’”
Now La Salle is shooting his eighth movie, “Lucy,” set to release next year.
Since founding La Salle Productions in 2019, La Salle has released seven films entirely outside the traditional studio system with distribution across platforms including Amazon Prime, Tubi, Apple TV, Roku and now FOX Soul.
“I wanted to highlight what’s actually happening with our veterans, and the issues that are occurring with them post-deployment,” he said. “A lot of them give the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms that we are afforded in this country, and most of them, when they come home, they’re just forgotten. It is a shame, but it continues to be a silent epidemic.”
“The Veteran” is streaming on FOX Soul, Prime Video and Tubi.