Amber Heard has an unsettling encounter with a troubled child in her new movie In the Fire.

Heard, 37, plays American psychiatrist Grace Burnham, who travels to Colombia in the 1890s to evaluate a disturbed boy, Martin (Lorenzo McGovern Zaini), who many believe is possessed by the Devil.

She begins treating the child, and in doing so, “ignites a war of science versus religion with the local priest,” according to a synopsis.

Dr. Burnham “is a woman who is a doctor in a time where that was very, very rare … and she is trying to prove herself,” director Conor Allyn told PEOPLE earlier this summer at the 69th Taormina Film Festival.

Amber Heard in “In the Fire”.

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In a clip exclusively shared with PEOPLE, Dr. Burnham plays word association with Martin while a metronome ticks ominously. After she mentions the boy’s mother, he levels her with a creepy stare and says, “We’re all gonna die because of me.”

Stunned into silence, Dr. Burnham looks at Martin, who asks her repeatedly, “What’s your lie?”

Heard told PEOPLE in Taormina In the Fire is “a beautiful movie about the almost supernatural effect and force of love.”

Amber Heard stars in ‘In the Fire’.

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

Allyn told PEOPLE Heard gives an incredible performance. “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,” he said.

“I really felt Amber had an immediate connection with this character and her skills and talents and intelligence but also her flaws,” he continued. “She could bring them to life in a way no one else could.”

“As soon as she signed onto the movie she dove in head first doing the research, reading the science of psychology — not the modern science but the things that were read in the 1880s and 1890s. She took all that in and started to build up the character and make so much more of it than what I had written on the pages,” Allyn added.

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The director said Heard stayed late on set to rehearse extra. “She knew every line by heart, and she knew everyone else’s lines too, and she knew all the research behind it,” according to Allyn.

Though she filmed the movie before her highly publicized defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp, it marks the first film to debut since.

“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,” added Allyn.

In the Fire is theaters and on digital Friday.