Hotel Coppelia

It's 1965 and Santo Domingo is at the brink of civil war. But at Hotel Coppelia, a brothel by the sea, it's business as usual on a crowded night — prostitutes pouring drinks, performing onstage, and taking clients upstairs to put in a hard night's work. Within this “home” at the margins, Judith is the madam in charge of a vibrant pack of loud broads and outcasts. She inherited this former hotel from her beloved father, and now runs it with an iron fist, enforcing strict rules onher girls and the young deaf orphan she's taken as her ward. This well-oiled operation comes to a grinding halt when revolutionaries stage a government coup and set off a nationwide conflict.Under this new uncertainty, more than half of the girls escape the hotel (and Judith's clutch),and only three stay behind: Marion, the undocumented Haitian cook; thrill-seeking Gloria; and Beti, a trans spitfire with a performative streak. Soon enough a rebel militia arrives at the hotel, led by Montero Arache, with their sights on seizing the cabaret as their basecamp. Judith and her remaining ladies stand their ground and decide to play along, safeguarding their place in thebrothel by agreeing to clean and cook for the men. Their deal creates a chaotic environment where there's constant mingling between prostitutes and the many soldiers who enter the hotel, exposing it to armed attacks and confrontations.A strange harmony begins to reign over this arrangement until American officials announce their intention to intervene and deploy troops to the Dominican Republic to quell the conflict. The daythe gringos arrive, they find their way to the brothel and swiftly kick out the dissidents. Now the foreigners are in charge, led by of Lt. Colonel Thompson, a domineering blowhard with little empathy and a desire to win no matter the cost. Judith, ever the pragmatist, manages to stay by offering the same deal she had with the rebels, but the U.S. soldiers have no intention of being accommodating guests. As the war outside reaches a boiling point, Judith's clan will have towage their own private battle, on a different scale: make a devil's bargain with the enemy, or protect their dignity at all cost.