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TECHNICAL::
Working Title: Victoria
Estimated Duration: 90 minutes
Genre: Drama
Country of Origin: Puerto Rico / United States
Language: Spanish / English
Creative Team:
Screenwriter/Director/Producer/: Bernice González Bofill
Producer: Arleen Cruz Alicea
Total Estimated Budget: $1.5M US
Current Project Status: Development.
LOGLINE:
After years of exile, a New York playwright who built her life on distance and control returns to Puerto Rico to confront the mother who cast her out, and the sister she has never met.
SYNOPSIS:
Victoria Rodríguez González, a successful New York–based theater writer and director, has built a life defined by control, distance, and artistic acclaim. When she begins receiving calls from a 787 number, she ignores them until she learns they’re from Sofía, the sister she has never met, urging her to return to Puerto Rico as their mother, Ana, nears the end of her life. As the calls persist, a past Victoria has long buried begins to unravel the life she has carefully constructed.
Reluctantly, Victoria returns home and meets Sofía for the first time, warm, impulsive, and deeply rooted in her community. As Victoria moves through Sofía’s world, her confidence and magnetism begin to eclipse the delicate balance Sofía has built: among her friends, and particularly around Gustavo, whose attention subtly shifts toward Victoria. What starts as admiration quickly exposes an old pattern: Victoria’s ability to command a room without noticing who is left behind.
Victoria also confronts Ana, her deeply religious mother, whose faith and silence led to Victoria’s exile as a teenager. The family home becomes a charged space where affection, resentment, and unspoken truths collide as Ana’s health deteriorates.
After Ana collapses and later dies, the silence finally breaks. Victoria reveals the truth she has never spoken aloud: as a child, she was sexually abused by Héctor, a respected young churchgoer, and later forced into an abortion, an act that stripped her of the possibility of having a family of her own. The revelation reframes everything: Victoria’s exile, Ana’s complicity through silence, and the life Victoria built in response to that rupture.
As the sisters sift through the private archive Ana left behind, they uncover evidence of love that was real but deeply flawed. Victoria invites Sofía to leave Puerto Rico with her, but Sofía chooses to stay, no longer orbiting her sister’s gravity, anchored instead to her own community and sense of self. Victoria returns to the theater, transforming survival into authorship, no longer performing strength, but finally reclaiming her voice.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
As a Puerto Rican filmmaker living in New York, Victoria is my most personal film yet, a story rooted in the dual experience of displacement and belonging experienced by many in the diaspora.
The story plays out across two spheres: New York City, driven by ambition and reinvention, and Puerto Rico, a home that feels both familiar and foreign after years of exile.
Victoria is ultimately a story of reconciling fractured identities, both familial and personal. It explores the tension between past and present, between cultural heritage and self-invention, and the bittersweet grief that comes with returning to a place that no longer fits the memory of home.
What drew me to Victoria’s journey is its raw emotional truth. Her return after years of estrangement reflects a universal human experience: the longing for belonging, the pain of unresolved relationships, and the courage it takes to confront our roots.
Like Victoria, I have navigated two worlds: one fueled by creative aspirations, the other by cultural and familial obligations.
Puerto Rico is not just a setting; it is a character. Its mountains and ocean mirror Victoria’s struggles. The land’s beauty is haunted by history and resilience. Dream sequences and symbolism explore the tension between what’s lost and what remains, between memories we keep and those that fade.
Growing up on the island feels like a fading dream, each year making it harder to return. Yet every visit reminds me of the strength and endurance of Puerto Rican women, women whose faces fill the news, whose stories demand to be told.
These women inspired Victoria. Her journey is not just her own; it echoes the stories of so many, those forced to leave, those who stayed behind, and those caught in between.
Writing Victoria became creation, healing, and discovery, a tapestry of family, homeland, and lived realities. Art became my lifeline, a sanctuary where pain became voice and hope took shape.
Victoria connects across cultures and generations. It speaks to the Puerto Rican diaspora, the Latinx community, and anyone struggling with identity and legacy, while delving into exile, colonialism, and cultural disconnection.
My goal is to tell a story that pays tribute to the authenticity and complexity of all those who, for one reason or another, have to leave home. Victoria is about redefining what home means, finding belonging amid fractured selves, and embracing our resilient beauty. Through her journey, I illuminate the shared suffering and hope of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
Ultimately, Victoria is as much my story as it is hers. Through art, struggle finds meaning and pain finds beauty. Sharing this story is my way to connect, heal, and affirm the enduring spirit within all who seek to belong.
HONORS, LABS, GRANTS, AND RECOGNITIONS
RUTA Crítica Development Program 2024 — Selected Project
LabGuion International Screenwriting Lab 2025 — Selected Participant