A middle-class prostitute strikes up an unlikely friendship with an immigrant streetwalker from the Dominican Republic in director Fernando León de Aranoa's compassionate, humanistic drama. Caye comes from a middle-class background, and her parents remain blissfully unaware of the means by which their daughter earns her keep. While many of Caye's days are spent hanging out with her fellow prostitutes cursing the rapid proliferation of cheaper immigrant prostitutes on the city streets, a chance
encounter with Zule, who is just such a woman, soon prompts Caye to reevaluate her standards. A dedicated mother who walks the streets in order to send money to her son back home, Zule is taken to the hospital by Caye after being badly beaten and left for dead. Now, as a warm bond begins to develop between the two women whose dreams of financial stability and kind companionship help to ease the pain of familial separation, the resulting discovery of self-determination leads Caye and Zule on a journey of self-discovery that will leave both women forever changed. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
While Princesas offers sensitive and beautifully wrought performances by its two leads (Candela Pena and Micaela Nevarez, who each won Goya Awards), the film offers little new in way of substance or theme.
Writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa embraces a pair of Madrid streetwalkers with such affection and compassion that their story, even though prostitutes are a staple of the movies, actually seems fresh and distinctive.
Women become prostitutes for different reasons, and the reasons driving the main characters in Spanish writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa's earnest tale of friendship couldn't be more different.
The film has inspirational messages about the rewards of multicultural integration, but its tacit approval of prostitution as a rewarding career choice seems a bit peculiar.
Despite the difficult subject matter, there is colour and energy to the storytelling that betrays a diehard optimism and is vaguely reminiscent of Pedro Almodovar's films. Aranoa keeps a loose, fluid feel to the action and ups the tempo with music.
Good movie. Fairly realistic, (or appeared to be), portrayal of prostitution. I liked the ending and the sense of hope for the main character instead of the usual, wound up dead or may as well be. The other lead character did not fare quite as well, but that's where the realism comes into it, and at least it wasn't
all bleak for her. (Not that I mind bleak as that is how things are, but this was a refreshing change).
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