Brooklyn is the main backdrop of independent filmmaker Wilfred La Salle's latest film The Veteran, which shines a light on how veterans cope with mental health issues and addiction.
The film follows Jose Torres, played by Yanko Valentin-Perez, a U.S. Marine who returns home to be with his wife and young son. However, things take a turn when tragedy strikes, and Torres’ wife and son are killed in a car accident. To cope with the pain, Torres turns to opioids and later becomes addicted to them. The addiction would go on to affect his mental and physical health, as well as his relationships with others.
After being discharged from the service, Torres becomes homeless, but makes an unlikely friend in Maxwell Cade, played by Brooklyn-native Lancelot E. Theobald Jr., a successful chief executive officer who sees past Torres’ issues.
Theobald Jr. told BK Reader the film holds a special place in his heart.
“I come from a family of veterans,” he said. “I’ve watched how much my uncle changed mentally when he came back from Vietnam. I also witnessed my cousin having to adjust after becoming a double-amputee quadriplegic. He went into the service young and vibrant and came back decimated and mentally checked out.”
As an executive board member of a women's and children’s homeless shelter, Theobald Jr. was able to draw on his real-life experiences to inform the character he plays in the film.
“One [bad] situation can make you homeless," he said. "You come across people who are educated, but all of a sudden are displaced or homeless because of circumstances or situations beyond their control.”
When people see a homeless person, many automatically think the worst about them, the actor said. However, everyone can be one or two paychecks away from being homeless.
"So, for my character as Mr. Cade, it was easy for me to bring the empathy out of him and towards the homeless vet in the film because I live it and see it, especially coming from Crown Heights," he said.
For the film, La Salle decided to keep it local. He shot most of the scenes in Brooklyn and the Bronx to capture the aesthetic he was looking for, particularly for the war scenes.
“The film was shot in the Bronx and Westchester, but all the war scenes and many of the house scenes were shot in Crown Heights,” he said. “All of the war scenes in the film were shot in Floyd Bennett Field, Fort Tilden and Fort Totten.”
La Salle, whose films generally focus on social issues, said this movie stems from the national opiod crisis.
“The driving point to make this film was to really shed light on these issues that our servicemen and women are facing when they come from deployment," he said.
The Veteran is available on Tubi and Amazon Prime streaming services.
