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A health expert turned filmmaker makes his East Coast premiere
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Princesas
Directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa

Review by Katharine Critchlow

"Princesas," Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s gritty portrait of two young prostitutes in Madrid, is a well-acted and engaging film that ultimately lacks emotional depth. The film centers on Caye (Candela Pena) and Zulema (Micaela Nevarez), two very different women who both work in the world's oldest profession. Their paths cross when Zulema steals one of Caye’s customers, and an angry Caye, who recognizes Zulema’s tell-tale "Sexy Girl 69" T-shirt from the upstairs clothesline, goes to confront her. But when Caye finds Zulema cowering and beaten, her frustration turns to empathy, and soon a friendship blooms between the two women.

Ladies Wild: Two Spanish prostitutes form an unlikely friendship in "Princesas."

Director Aranoa’s Madrid is not the colorful, vibrant world from the films of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, but rather a dreary grey wasteland where harsh economic realities send prostitutes to plastic surgeons, drug dealers, and abusive clients. Zulema is one of several immigrants from the Dominican Republic, who the Spanish prostitutes resent because they sell their exotic looks at a cheaper price. Even as Caye befriends Zulema, she hides the relationship from her colleagues who meet at a local salon to complain about the competition.

Micaela Nevarez, in her first feature film, turns in a moving performance as Zulema, who lacks the working papers to get a legitimate job to support her young son. Though Candela Pena’s expressive face is compelling to watch, her character’s motivations are hard to understand. A Spanish native from a middle class family, Caye isn’t trapped like Zulema. Her only financial goal is to save enough money for breast implants. But rather than explore these contradictions, Aranoa ignores them and leaves us feeling cold. It’s difficult to listen to Caye’s dramatic monologues about finding a better life when such a life seems to be within her reach. The film works best when Caye and Zulema wander the city to original songs by Franco-Spanish folk singer Manu Chao, laughing about their misconceptions about each other and tricks of the trade like how to talk dirty to clients. Such effective scenes prove that these "Princesas" are best observed in their natural state, without sentimentality.