Female Film Critics 24/375
In telling the story of undocumented transgender Filipina caregiver Olivia, writer/director/actress Isabel Sandoval’s quietly powerful drama Lingua Franca calls attention to an issue that too many people find easy to dismiss as not their concern. And it does so with empathy and humanity, hopefully opening hearts and minds before the credits roll.
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Isabel Sandoval has created a subtle, sensual story that goes beyond the trans narratives released by largely white, male, cis-gendered mainstream directors of today. Her film Lingua Franca is a relationship-based tale that follows trans Filipina Olivia in her struggle to find some joy and live her life authentically as a caregiver in Brighton Beach, while trying to secure a green card.
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Isabel Sandoval’s timely Lingua Franca is the rare film that centers on a working class, usually invisible woman. With a delicate dramatic touch, Sandoval shows how the life of Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman, is shaped by the tense political climate and her lack of options.
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Let’s salute writer, director and lead actress Isabel Sandoval for Lingua Franca. The film is her somber, sobering and highly personal story infused by her own real life experiences as she plays an a post-opt Filipino trans woman, an undocumented immigrant living and working in Brooklyn.
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