Reel Queer: Lingua Franca

Directed by Isabel Sandoval
Starring Isabel Sandoval, Eamon Farren, Ivory Aquino, P.J. Boudousqué, Lev Gorn, Lynn Cohen

Sensual and imbued with longing; for love, for security, for something to call home, Lingua Franca is a film built on deep feeling and intense specificity. The title refers to a language that is adopted as a common means of communication between speakers whose native languages are different. 

In this beguiling drama, writer, director, editor, producer and star Isobel Sandoval tells the story of Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman working as a live-in caregiver for Olga, a Russian-Jewish grandmother in the early stages of dementia, living in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. When the American-born man she’s secretly paying for a green card marriage backs out, Olivia becomes involved with Olga’s grandson Alex, a hotheaded slaughterhouse worker who doesn’t know she is trans. 

Join Reel Queer after the film for a post-screening discussion.