Amber Heard's 'In the Fire' Director Says She 'Has an Incredibly Bright Future Ahead' (Exclusive)

'In the Fire' director Conor Allyn tells PEOPLE that the indie film will serve as 'a platform for a hell of a comeback' for the actress

Amber Heard has a "comeback" movie on her hands, the film's director says.

The indie movie In the Fire, a thriller starring Heard as a psychiatrist in the 1890s, had its world premiere at the 69th Taormina Film Festival in Italy over the weekend.

The actress, 37, several of her costars, and director Conor Allyn attended the festival, posing together on the red carpet and speaking to the press and festival-goers about the project, which completed filming in March 2022, months before her Virginia defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp began.

“Amber has an incredibly bright future ahead," Allyn told PEOPLE at the Taormina Film Festival. "I think In the Fire showcases her talents as an actor. I know this is something she is very proud of and it’s something we are very excited to release to the public."

"I think it will be a great opportunity for her to have something beyond the trial and stuff to talk about and to be a platform for a hell of a comeback," he adds.

Allyn says he can envision Heard directing films one day.

"As a director, I never look for more competition than there already is. But Amber absolutely has the ability and the intelligence and the charisma to direct or to write if she wants to," he says.

Related: Amber Heard Attends Taormina Film Festival for Her Movie 'In the Fire' 1 Year After Johnny Depp Trial

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"There are a lot of different talents involved in making a movie ... but most of all you need to be able to tell a story, to find the interesting elements, whether it is in the character or in the story as a whole, and to understand the entirety of what’s happening. And she gets that," says Allyn. "I can see her directing."

In In the Fire, Heard plays a psychiatrist named Grace who ventures to treat a child in Colombia at a time when psychiatry was not a respected science. A synopsis adds, that while Grace "tries to psychoanalyze the child, the nefarious events intensify and her 'cure' becomes a race to save the little boy from the fury of his fellow citizens and, perhaps, even from himself."

Heard told PEOPLE at the film's premiere that it's "a beautiful movie about the almost supernatural effect and force of love."

"It is about the boundaries that love can cross and its creation, and really about the overwhelming power that love has," she said. "I don’t want to sound cheesy about it, but it’s a movie about love."

Allyn says Heard "had an immediate connection with this character and her skills and talents and intelligence but also her flaws; she could bring them to life in a way no one else could."

He also recalls how the actress shared the same passion he had for the film throughout the production. The cast of In the Fire also includes Eduardo Noriega, Lorenzo Mcgovern Zaini, Yari Gugliucci and Luca Calvani.

"People don’t do indie films for the paycheck, they do it out of passion. Your job as a director is to get everyone as excited as you are. With Amber I had a partner who had the same passion for the role and for the movie and the story itself," he says.

"As soon as she signed onto the movie, she dove in head first doing the research. ... Then when we got onstage, to have your movie star be that passionate, it really sets a tone for everyone that works on the movie, when the person at the top of the call list is arriving early, staying late, doing extra rehearsals."

"She knew every line by heart, and she knew everyone else’s lines too, and she knew all the research behind it," says Allyn. "It allows us to jump right in and make so much more of the movie than just the words we started with. You’re really lucky on any movie to have something like that."

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