Princess
November 10, 2023
A young clandestine Nigerian girl sells her body in an enchanted forest, dodging emotions and deceiving customers. Until one day—forced to break the chains of exploitation—she meets a man who wants to save her. But first, she has to save herself.
Individual Tickets: Select showtime to purchase
Passes: $125 | $100 SIFF Members - Access to all Cinema Italian Style screenings and the Opening Night party
SIFF year-round passes are not valid for this screening. Vouchers are accepted.
The lives of immigrants who must do sex work to make ends meet receive an eminently surprising, by turns comic and dead-serious treatment in Roberto De Paolis’s sophomore feature. The 19-year-old title character (indelibly, charismatically portrayed by first-time actor Glory Kevin) hustles in a forest on the outskirts of Rome alongside her friend/professional rival Success and lives with a group of other Nigerian women in a makeshift encampment. While making her rounds, Princess encounters a kindly yet misanthropic stranger (Lino Musella) foraging for mushrooms, inaugurating an unanticipated friendship—maybe more?—that could potentially offer her a chance at social assimilation. Eschewing sentimentality and self-seriousness for a more original, playful engagement with its weighty subject, Princess was written by De Paolis in consultation with real-life Nigerian migrant sex workers, several of whom appear as themselves.
- Director: Roberto de Paolis
- Principal Cast: Glory Kevin, Lino Musella, Sandra Osagie, Salvatore Striano, Maurizio Lombardi
- Country: Italy
- Year: 2022
- Running Time: 111 min.
- Producer: Carla Altieri
- Screenplay: Roberto De Paolis
- Cinematographers: Claudio Cofrancesco
- Editors: Paola Freddi
- Music: Emanuele De Raymondi
- Website: Official Website
- Filmography: Pure Hearts (2017)
- Language: Italian, English, Pidgin
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- International Sales: True Colours Glorious Films