Lingua Franca film review

“How do YOU get to be Mixed race at YOUR age.”

“By being more working class than you, ya Booji Millennial!”

Not a conversation I’m proud of. Neither of us came out of that a winner, just more adherence that the other person was not worth bothering about and why evs.

Lingua Franca brings the interplay of integration and assimilation to the screen in a gritty yet never Grimey, Sensuous yet never sexploitational, and political yet never polemical form that makes it a great portrait of multi-culturalism in the western world and the less binary aspects of our reality.

Ostensibly an odd couple pairing as a wayward son, Alex is back attempting to make amends with his family, moving in with his Babushka (Grandmother) Olga, and leaning on his uncle to get him a job in a Slaughterhouse.

His Bubba, Olga, has early signs of dementia, and her carer Olivia is way more capable on many levels. Alex’s entitlement and impetuousness often cause more problems than it solves, while that dynamic attracts Olivia. For reasons that soon become apparent, she has to be a bastion of self-control on so many levels—fear of being discovered as a transgender woman and an illegal immigrant in Trump’s America.

As the relationship develops between the three, we are given a healthy perspective on their more expansive world. This is not a single-minded issue lead film. Their decisions and lives are comfortably pragmatic, and the de facto nature of it all shows the adaptaility6 and mutability immigrant life insists and forces on everyone to varying degrees.

The gender role of power soon comes to the fore, and while heightening the drama does leave the final, I felt lacking and falling into longeurs. 

The reality of Olivia’s self-control conflicts with exactly how short and fragile her life is. Alex’s ability to frankly cause havoc and distress to his family, his work and her life became increasingly emboldened with no consequence. I could not help but feel…the chance this was introspection was just petulance on his part and by the demount, I had passed caring for him.

Culture is a novelty, a commodity. Alex, in particular, is only ‘as Russian’ as it serves a purpose and embodies a maga attitude that upends the notions they may be in a similar situation.

Rogelio Braga read an excerpt of his work “The Radicalisation of a woman without a paper,” focussing on a conflict between two arch enemies who had gone to London, one with legitimacy and a position in the NHS, the other illegal. He blends a Londonist perspective not too dissimilar to what one would expect in ‘The Metro’ with a sense of Shamanic imagery that imbues it with an almost gothic richness of magical realism that felt distinct and holistic thematically as emotions run deep on both sides.

Troy Cabida ‘s poems were taut and minimalist, with a sharp modernist wit by contrast. In discussing the film, he conveyed a sense that to him, the film was meditative and more supportive, so I have to recognize

that lack of introspection. It Might be mine.

for more on the Tape collective and itsrogram 

https://www.tapecollective.co.uk/

the creative work platform by artists of Asian heritage can be found 

at at https://baesianz.com/

the creative performers can be found at troycabida.com and linktr.ee/Rogelio Braga