-The Backroom-

In a country somewhere in Latin America during the struggle between the government and the guerrilla fighters, Monica Delgado, a presidential candidate, is being held hostage by a group of rebels in the jungle. Monica shares her cell with Helena Mayo, a television reporter. The two women have been in captivity for months and they fear for their lives. Comandante Aguja, the guerrilla leader in charge of their unit, may decide to execute them at any moment. Their days are spent trying to keep thoughts of death at bay, reminiscing about their lives and competing for survival.

MONICA

All my life I’ve traveled, first with my parents and then with my husband. Rome, London, Paris, Madrid, Istanbul. I studied English, French, and Italian; became fluent enough to converse with people in their own language. I can’t think of a worse fate than living as an outsider. In Italy I was Italian; in Spain Spanish; but I was never truly myself. No matter where I went I used to dream about our orchids, smell their scent in my sleep. I longed for home, and THIS is home to me. Why wouldn’t I come back? Our country is beautiful. I’ve never seen such green fields anywhere else. And the mountains...

COMANDANTE

(To MONICA) 

While you were flying around the world in the Concord I was here trying to clean this mess up. Believe me. Sometimes you feel like an immigrant in your own land. And what is worse is that the place you yearn for is an imaginary island far away and out of reach, a place of the heart or the imagination or both that you barely comprehend yourself.