Richard Lally

Everybody lies in Princesas except those who tell a truth no one wants to believe. Set in a downtrodden section of modern Madrid, director Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s latest film is a tale of two prostitutes, Caye (the formidable Candela Pena of Te Doy Mis Ojos) and Zulema (Micaela Nevarez in her screen debut), who first meet as antagonists but gradually form a friendship out of necessity and a common longing to escape their environment.

Conventional plot lines fall into the morgue in 13 (Tzameti), director Gela Babluani’s ferociously serene mediation on the consequence of choice, the nature of the survival instinct, the schism between classes, and the corrupting power of wealth. The film’s protagonist Sebastien (George Babluani, brother of the director), is a young Russian immigrant living a squalid existence with his family in a dead-end town in rural France. A series of coincidences that conspire to feel like destiny lead him to a chateau in the French countryside where he agrees to compete for a potentially life-altering fortune in a high-stakes game of Russian Roulette played before an audience of well-heeled gamblers.