Stars at Noon

Nicaragua, 2020: Election season and the COVID-19 pandemic. Trish arrived in the country as a U.S. journalist, but now she's stuck. Her passport is gone, her money too, and after publishing a critical report, she finds herself in the authorities' cross-hairs. In a climate of arbitrariness, surveillance, and latent violence, she tries to get by with the help of improvisation, lies, and the only asset she has left: using intimacy as currency to obtain dollars, protection, and a way to leave the country. In the sheltered microcosm of an international luxury hotel, Trish searches for a way out. There she meets Daniel, a British businessman who, as a sophisticated stranger, navigates the realms of diplomacy, business, and secrets. Trish sees him as her salvation: someone with the right papers, the right connections, and the right distance from Nicaraguan reality. But the closer they get to each other, the clearer it becomes that Daniel also plays a role. What begins as a pragmatic, self-interested arrangement develops into a passionate affair that gives Trish a sense of stability, yet at the same time draws her deeper into an inscrutable web. As external pressure mounts, they both try to leave the country. On the way to the border, every encounter becomes a test: What is genuine, what is manipulation? What is desire, what is strategy? Trish clings to Daniel because without him she has little room to maneuver, and amid the threat, a fleeting trust forms that could shatter at any moment.