One of this year’s Spotlight Narrative official selection films of the 2023 Tribeca Festival, “I.S.S.,” debuted at the world premiere at The SVA Theater in New York City.
The film is a suspenseful sci-fi thriller set in the near future aboard the International Space Station after a world war event occurs on Earth between the United States and Russia. The world war breaks out the day after two U.S. astronauts, Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) and Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr.) join the team aboard the Internation Space Station. Everyone gets along well at first until the war breaks out the next day and tensions mount due to the fact that the team is made up of Russian and American astronauts. As the respective governments give orders from the ground to “take control of the station by any means necessary,” the stakes become increasingly higher and suspenseful.
The Knockturnal had the opportunity to chat with one of the film’s stars, John Gallagher, Jr., and Director/Writer Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who is most known for the Netflix documentary, “Blackfish.” Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) was also at the world premiere after hilariously hosting the 2023 TONY Awards Sunday night without a script due to the WGA writer’s strike. “She’s just a force. She’s such an incredible person, but she’s soo willing to learn, praised Director/Writer. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. “She’s in touch with her humanity and I feel like that’s all stuff she brought to bare with her character, Kira. I felt like I had this diamond.”
John Gallagher Jr. shared how fun it was to work with the film’s stunt team and anti-what drew him to the script and his character, Christian. “In his heart, he’s a good person and he completely snaps under traumatic pressure and starts behaving in a very inhumane way,” he said. “The idea that somebody who seems like a pretty good person could do that was something that was interesting for me to play with.”
Check out our interviews with John Gallagher Jr. and Gabriela Cowperthwaite below!