Nico (Guillermo Pfening, Last Summer of La Boyita, Frameline34) is the handsome young star of a popular soap opera in his native Argentina. At the height of a blossoming career, he suddenly and mysteriously leaves Argentina (and his mentor-producer-lover, Martin) to pursue acting in New York. But the promise of film work and a permanent visa evaporates as Nico — too blond to play Latino, too heavily accented to play anything else — finds himself working odd jobs as a temporary immigrant and becoming more desperate, socially and financially, just to stay on the lowest rung of the American economic ladder. When his beautiful friend Andrea (Elena Roger, The Good German) suggests paying him to be her son’s nanny, Nico, though fond of the boy, wonders if becoming a “manny” will be the final blow to his self-image as an artist and a man. Ultimately, he must confront the real reasons he left Argentina and take steps toward reclaiming a sense of his own worth.

Directed by Julia Solomonoff (Last Summer of La Boyita, Frameline34), Nobody’s Watching, which had its World Premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, features strong acting, fluid direction, and a literate screenplay that smartly observes with an outsider’s eye the subtle boundaries that define class, race, and opportunity in contemporary America. The film’s intense but ultimately uplifting vision vividly highlights the immigrant experience, gay life, loneliness, and the role that “failure” can play as a stepping stone to self-discovery.