Lingua Franca (Isabel Sandoval, 2019): USA/Philippines

Review by Manu Davila. View at AFI Fest 2019.

Before the film I was wondering about the final result of Lingua Franca, specially because filmmaker Isabel Sandoval directed, wrote, produced, edited it, as well as played the main character Olivia. As a final result, a very impressive piece of filmmaking. However, even though the plot is clear, sometimes it seems it deviates from the fundamental conflict and jumps into a love story. Also, I did not find too much depth in Olivia’s and Alex’s characters. Overall director Isabel put herself in a very vulnerable position, showing truth and telling a contemporary story that its necessary for society to hear, but the result would have been more impactful with stronger characters.

Olivia is an undocumented Filipina trans woman, she works as caregiver for Olga (Lynn Cohen) an elderly Russian American woman living in Brooklyn. Besides caring for Olga, Olivia is desperate trying to find a green card, by arranging a fake marriage. Here is when Olga’s grandson comes to the story, just got out of rehab, slowly gets to meet Olivia, and even though their paths are different, Olivia does not have many options and decides to get involved in a love story with him, however, not everything goes as they planned. 

I found the cinematography very compelling, and with an attractive tone. The film has a poetic rhythm, sometimes even sensual. It tells the story of a character with disadvantage, which conveys the fear of not having a home, or the fear of being deported at any moment, and a blurry identity. Shown by low key lighting, and realistic characteristics. Themes are interesting and essentials for the conflict, however I would have liked to know more and get deeper into Olivia’s character, rather than Alex’s.