Lingua Franca 2019

Olivia is a Filipina trans woman who works as a live-in caregiver for Olga in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. Olga, a Russian-Jewish woman, is in the early stages of dementia and relies on Olivia to confirm her surroundings, which she initially suspects is not her own home. As an undocumented immigrant, Olivia harbors fears of detention or deportation by ICE at any moment. Olivia’s earnings go toward supporting her family in the Philippines, in addition to installments to Alex, her American-born boyfriend, with the hope of Olivia securing a green card through a marriage of convenience. Olivia’s plans are disrupted just as Alex arrives to live with Olga after a stay in rehab.

While Olivia remains patient with Olga, Alex arrives to live with his grandmother and tries to navigate caregiving while pursuing a steadier life—working at his uncle’s slaughterhouse and trying to stay sober. The frictions of the household test both Olivia’s devotion and Alex’s stubborn pride, but a quiet understanding grows between them. Olivia and Alex form a bond, with Olivia opening up about her undocumented status and her need for a green card, and Alex responding with sympathy even as he keeps her secret to protect her.

One night, Olivia fantasizes about Alex after he reads his late grandfather’s love letters out loud, a moment that makes the distance between them feel intimate and real. The two enter into a romantic relationship, with Alex unaware of Olivia’s trans identity. The relationship deepens against a backdrop of daily vulnerability and the constant threat of discovery.

Trouble arrives when Andrei, Alex’s drunken male friend, snoops around Olivia’s room and steals her money while she is in the shower. Andrei discovers Olivia’s passport, revealing Olivia’s pre-transition identity. He shows the passport to Alex, who does not disclose his relationship with Olivia and instead tells Andrei to keep quiet. This betrayal revives Olivia’s fear that ICE could raid the apartment at any moment, a fear that compounds the secrecy surrounding their relationship. When Olivia realizes her belongings were rummaged through, Alex fabricates a story about a masked intruder, further intensifying her anxiety.

Alex shows up to his job at the slaughterhouse drunk and is fired on the spot by his uncle, an event that temporarily strains their budding connection. Yet he later stabilizes, returns to work after promising to stay sober, and each begins to confront the reality of their circumstances with growing honesty. While on an overnight trip to Atlantic City, Alex drunkenly offers to marry Olivia the next day, and talks about building a big family together. Olivia is hesitant and tells him she has something to tell him, but he reassures her that he already knows about her being trans and would still marry her.

The next morning in their motel room, Olivia demands that Alex return her passport to her, a moment that crystallizes the power dynamic between secrecy and safety in their relationship. The ending remains deliberately ambiguous: it is suggested that Olivia has decided not to go through with the marriage, as she tells her mother in the Philippines she has a new job and has met someone else, with her earnings continuing to support her family and aid her green-card prospects. The film closes on Olga, who forgets her surroundings once again, underscoring a world where memory, identity, and belonging are fragile and precarious.